CPJ alarmed by allegation of assault on jailed blogger in Egypt
New York, November 20, 2007— The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by recent allegations that an Egyptian blogger, jailed earlier this year for his online criticisms, was violently assaulted by inmates and prison guards this month. On November 12, the Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and the Hisham Mubarak Center for Law…
Egyptian journalists convicted amid wave of libel cases
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…
Independent editor to be tried in Egyptian security court
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,…
Amid a crackdown, three Egyptian editors sentenced to jail
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…
Four editors sentenced to jail
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…
Egyptian editor questioned over reports about Mubarak’s health
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…
Cairo court sentences Al-Jazeera producer to six months in jail
New York, May 2, 2007—On the same day the Committee to Protect Journalists cited Egypt for its deteriorating press conditions, a judge in Cairo convicted an Al-Jazeera producer on charges of “harming Egypt’s national interest” and “falsely depicting events” for her work on a documentary exposing police abuse. The court sentenced Howayda Taha Matwali, who…
Backsliders: The 10 countries where press freedom has most deteriorated
New York, May 2, 2007–Three nations in sub-Saharan Africa are among the places worldwide where press freedom has deteriorated the most over the last five years, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. Ethiopia, where the government launched a massive crackdown on the private press by shutting newspapers and jailing editors,…