More than 30 Sudanese journalists have launched the country’s biggest-ever hunger strike to protest the forced closure of their newspaper.

The journalists, who work for the newspaper Al-Tayyar, which was shuttered by the government for the second time late last year, launched the movement on Tuesday to protest what they called “arbitrary procedure” against the press in Sudan.

“This is the first ever hunger strike by journalists in the history of Sudanese press, and the first to happen outside a prison,” reporter and columnist Shama’il Alnour told the Guardian.

“Of course we have the immediate goal of having the suspension lifted,” she said. “But in general we are using [Al-Tayyar’s] case as an example while we defend freedom of expression.”