A/HRC/7/22 page 9 were being detained because of their opposition to the dam and because of their open criticism of Government policy in relation to the dam. One of them was reportedly arrested to force his brother, who is an active opponent of the dam, to turn himself in. 30. These arrests were part of a pattern of arbitrary arrests and prosecutions in an apparent effort to stifle community protests against the Kajbar dam project. Only days prior to the latest wave of arrests, seven people who had been detained because of their campaigning activities against the dam project were released without charge after over two months of detention by NISS. Another five people were sentenced to fines in Khartoum for alleged public order offences and for “provoking hatred” because they distributed information about an event on the Kajbar dam. 31. Khartoum media are still subject to restrictions on freedom of expression through case-by-case censorship, imposition of public information bans and use of criminal legislation. Since mid-August, representatives of NISS have reportedly been visiting the print houses and offices of several national Arabic newspapers to inspect the editions of the papers prior to printing. On several occasions, NISS officers were reported to have ordered the removal or replacement of articles and columns from the printing plate. Since the beginning of 2007, a number of public information bans have been imposed preventing newspapers from reporting on court cases of public interest concerning human rights violations. Most recently, on 27 December, local newspapers reported that the prosecution office of the press had issued a ban on public reporting on all criminal cases that were under investigation. 32. In addition to the above cases of media restrictions, domestic laws can be used to place limitations on the media. The 2004 Press and Printed Materials Act contains numerous provisions which may be used to curb criticism and does not contain clear guarantees for the protection of the freedom of expression of media practitioners. The Act also puts in place various restrictions and protocols that make it difficult for new media sources to come into existence. Its application is supervised by the Press Council, a body that is generally perceived to lack political independence. Certain provisions of other laws, such as the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Act, have also been used to restrict the freedom of the press. 33. Three journalists and human rights defenders were summoned and questioned by NISS in Khartoum on 5 and 6 November. The three people, who are known defenders of the freedom of the press, believe that the summons and questioning were carried out to intimidate them and discourage them from their activities. 34. On 5 November, they were summoned and kept waiting for over six hours at the political department of NISS in the Bahri district of Khartoum. In the afternoon, an NISS official informed them that they should return the following morning. On the following day, the three people were questioned in separate rooms for several hours each. They were reportedly asked about their personal lives and about different human rights and journalist groups in whose activities they participate, or whose activities they know about, among them the Sudan Organization Against Torture, the Khartoum Centre for Human Rights, and groups of journalists working on the freedom of the press. They were reportedly questioned about the organizations’ structures, their sources of funding and the activities they conduct, among other things on the freedom of the press, elections and human rights issues. They were released without charge but told that they would be contacted again for further investigation.