KHARTOUM, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Sudanese security agents blocked the printing of a newspaper linked with the south&${esc.hash}39;s main party, raising fears of a new wave of censorship, one of its editors said on Thursday.
Staff at Ajras al-Huriya said no explanation was given but the Khartoum-based paper has carried prominent articles about the widely expected secession of the south following a referendum and street protests over price rises.
"We took our newspaper to the printing press last night (Wednesday) and the security guys came and stopped it," deputy editor-in-chief Fayez al-Silaik told Reuters. "They said you can&${esc.hash}39;t print it until we have read it. But they didn&${esc.hash}39;t come back until now."
"Now we are ... waiting. They may close or suspend the newspaper ... We are expecting the worse."
Neither national security nor Sudan&${esc.hash}39;s media regulator, the National Press Council, were immediately available for comment.
Al-Silaik said most of the paper&${esc.hash}39;s editors were from the north but they were worried how the media would be treated after the south declared independence.
"They (the government) may stop all the freedoms. They may declare emergency laws."
Sudan&${esc.hash}39;s constitution guarantees a free press but papers have faced censorship and shut-downs in the past, particularly during politically sensitive periods.
Ajras al-Huriya, backed by the south&${esc.hash}39;s dominant Sudan People&${esc.hash}39;s Liberation Movement (SPLM), has been suspended a number of times in recent years.
Khartoum police on Wednesday night clashed with protesters demanding the release of opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi, who was detained after he called for a "popular revolution" over price rises and political demands.
Students have also held rare protests in northern cities in recent weeks over the price hikes and subsidy cuts imposed as Khartoum grapples with a current account deficit and a currency devaluation that is driving up inflation.
The economic crisis has been worsened by fears about the economic impact of losing the oil-producing south following the referendum that ended last week.
The referendum was promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war. Early results show an overwhelming vote for secession. (Reporting by Andrew Heavens)
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