Salih became a journalist in 1949 after joining the Sudanese independence movement from Egypt. He founded the oldest independent newspaper in Sudan, Al Ayam, in 1958. Twice closed by the Sudanese government during the 1960s, it became a product of it in 1970. Salih did not publish it again until 1986. This was not the end of his troubles with the law, as it was again closed from 1989 to 2000.