ibrahim-eissa

Egyptian court upholds Al-Jazeera conviction; strikes down prison sentence

Cairo, February 11, 2008—An appeals court in Cairo today upheld the conviction of an Al-Jazeera journalist charged with harming Egypt’s reputation for her work on a documentary about torture, but struck down her prison term.

In a crowded courtroom in north Cairo, Judge Hazem Wageeh read a statement that upheld a count of “making or possessing pictures likely to harm the country’s reputation” but overturned the conviction of journalist Howayda Taha Matwali for spreading “false news.” The judge threw out the six-month prison sentence Matwali originally had been given in May, but upheld a 20,000 Egyptian pound (US$3,607) fine.

The government clamped down on political opposition, tried to suppress speculation about the health of President Hosni Mubarak, and waged a steady offensive against critical journalists, bloggers, and foreign media workers. By year’s end, a full-fledged crackdown was under way, with Egyptian courts aggressively prosecuting several of the country’s leading independent editors and writers. Authorities appeared bent on setting tighter boundaries for the independent press and for bloggers, whose numbers and influence have grown. In 2007, CPJ designated Egypt one of the world’s worst backsliders on press freedom, citing a dramatic increase in attacks on the press.

In a July 25 speech marking the 50th anniversary of the Tunisian Republic, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali proclaimed that his government had “enriched the information and communication landscape and offered opportunity for the expression of different opinions.” It was an Orwellian moment in a year in which the Ben Ali administration stepped up attacks on independent journalists and blocked numerous online news sites.

 

Washington, January 22, 2008—In testimony today before the House Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee, the Committee to Protect Journalists raised concern about mounting press freedom abuses in U.S. ally nations in the Middle East and urged the U.S. government to prioritize press freedoms in its bilateral relations.

 

January 10, 2008

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Via Facsimile: 202-456-2461

 

New York, October 29, 2007—The criminal libel convictions and one-month jail terms handed down Saturday against journalists for an Egyptian opposition daily are part of a government-organized campaign to silence the press and should be overturned, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

The case stems from a complaint filed by lawyers affiliated with the ruling National Democratic Party—one in a series of recent criminal libel cases initiated by party-affiliated lawyers, CPJ research shows.

New York, September 27, 2007­­―The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed that a leading Egyptian editor charged with publishing articles about President Hosni Mubarak’s health will be tried by an emergency state security court. Meanwhile, a Cairo court handed jail terms to the chairman of an independent weekly and four of its journalists.

Ibrahim Eissa, editor-in-chief of the daily Al-Dustour, will stand trial on Monday at the Emergency State Security Court, an emergency court that does not allow for appeals and rarely issues acquittals, several journalists confirmed to CPJ today. Eissa was charged on September 11 with publishing reports “liable to disturb public security and damage the public interest.”

New York, September 26, 2007­­―The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns this week’s convictions of three editors from an opposition daily, which come amid a flurry of criminal lawsuits filed against the press by lawyers affiliated with the ruling National Democratic Party.  

A criminal misdemeanor court on Monday convicted Al-Wafd Editor-in-Chief Anwar al-Hawari, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Mahmoud Ghalab, and Politics Editor Amir Salem under Article 102 of the penal code for publishing news “liable to disturb public security, spread horror among the people, or cause harm or damage to the public interest,” according to the paper and news reports.

New York, September 13, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Cairo court’s ruling today that sentences four independent editors to one-year jail terms for publishing “false information.”

Editors Ibrahim Eissa of the daily Al-Dustour, Wael al-Abrashy of the weekly Sawt al-Umm, Adel Hammouda of the weekly Al-Fajr, and Abdel Halim Kandil, former editor of the weekly Al-Karama were convicted of “publishing false information likely to disturb public order” in a case initiated by a lawyer affiliated with the ruling National Democratic Party, according to local journalists and international news reports. The lawyer accused the editors of defaming President Hosni Mubarak and his top aides, including his son Gamal Mubarak, and of spreading false information.

New York, September 6, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the case of a leading independent Egyptian editor who is being investigated by a state security prosecutor for reporting about the allegedly declining health of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Ibrahim Eissa, editor of the independent daily Al-Dustour, was questioned for several hours by prosecutors Wednesday outside Cairo on accusations that he published reports “likely to disturb public security, spread horror among the people, or cause harm to or damage to the public interest,” according to Eissa’s lawyers. The accusations, crimes under Article 102 of the Egyptian Penal Code that carry stiff prison sentences, stem from recent front-page headlines and an opinion piece in Al-Dustour about recent speculation about Mubarak’s failing health.