Last Thursday Al Jazeera journalists and staff appeared in court shortly in what is known now as "Al Jazeera cell". Their trial has started in another scandal when we found out that there was no translator for the foreign defenders. Some say that it is a trick to prolong the trial. I do not know why to prolong such scandalous trial that is defaming our image more and more.
Somehow some Egyptians are wondering if Peter Greste's arrest was actually an unfortunate hidden bless to shad some light on the agony of other Egyptian journalists facing hell now.
Mohamed Fadel Fahmy told reporters in the court room that his shoulder had been treated yet. He also told his fiancee Marwa that insh Allah he would be free and they would have their wedding soon. Insh Allah they will.
Baher Mohamed's pregnant wife came along with his little children. Baher wrote a letter and smuggled it to the outside world on how he was arrested and how his family was treated during the arrest.
Here are the smuggled letter of Baher Mohamed which NPR's Cairo bureau chief Laila Fadel thankfully. You can click on the photos to zoom in.
It is worth to mention Fadel and Baher's families were not allowed to the court room and only Peter Greste's brother attended the session.
Here is also a letter sent from Mohamed Fahmy Fadel from prison
There are other Egyptian journalists and reporters who are involved in the same trial besides Greste , Baher and Fadel like Sohip Saad.
The trial of AJ staff has been adjourned as expected to early March.
Abdullah El Shamy is still on hunger strike. It has been more than a month if I remember correctly.
It is truly dangerous now in Egypt to be a journalist. Aside from the jailed journalists and aside from the lawsuits following them and the attacks against journalists , reporters, TV correspondents and photographers on the ground , Egypt , some people are trying to push on my nerves claiming that the situation is better than the past two years. Well with my all due respect if I would choose , I would say that 2011 was all its clashes and massacres journalists were much safer than now.
This cartoon by Doaa El Adl represents the best example on how Egyptian reporters especially the photographers.
Last week journalists in Egypt lost an ally when it comes to their rights in the Journalists syndicate. Journalist and journalists' right advocate and defender Abeer Saady who decided to boycott the syndicate board. Saady spoke in her note or rather letter to her co-workers from journalists telling them she could not go along any more with the silence of the syndicate towards the violations happening against the journalists in the past 7 months. Saady has been defending journalists indiscriminately since last July. Her move is a sit back
Now the syndicate is controlled by Nasserites who are naturally biased to the Military.
According to committee to protect journalists Egypt comes in the 9th place shamefully in the worst countries for jailed journalists in 2013.
I have not heard a comment from Diaa Rashwan , the head of the syndicate about this !!
Our mainstream media is insisting to reminding us on how the current Turkish regime is giving hard times to journalists and reporters against Erdogan’s party and so on neglecting the universal fact that the one who lives in glass house does not throw people with stone.
I want to criticize the Turkish government , it is enough that they kicked out a journalist like Mahir Zeynalov because of a tweet but I can not when journalists in my own country are facing hell.Not to mention that there are journalists and public figures are referred to court because of tweets accused of defaming judiciary.
On daily basis you hear reports about journalists in Egypt facing hell and nobody is standing for their rights.
Somehow some Egyptians are wondering if Peter Greste's arrest was actually an unfortunate hidden bless to shad some light on the agony of other Egyptian journalists facing hell now.
Mohamed Fadel Fahmy told reporters in the court room that his shoulder had been treated yet. He also told his fiancee Marwa that insh Allah he would be free and they would have their wedding soon. Insh Allah they will.
Baher Mohamed's pregnant wife came along with his little children. Baher wrote a letter and smuggled it to the outside world on how he was arrested and how his family was treated during the arrest.
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| Baher's wife with his children Hazem&Fayroz by Tamer El Ghobashy |
It is worth to mention Fadel and Baher's families were not allowed to the court room and only Peter Greste's brother attended the session.
Here is also a letter sent from Mohamed Fahmy Fadel from prison
There are other Egyptian journalists and reporters who are involved in the same trial besides Greste , Baher and Fadel like Sohip Saad.The trial of AJ staff has been adjourned as expected to early March.
Abdullah El Shamy is still on hunger strike. It has been more than a month if I remember correctly.
It is truly dangerous now in Egypt to be a journalist. Aside from the jailed journalists and aside from the lawsuits following them and the attacks against journalists , reporters, TV correspondents and photographers on the ground , Egypt , some people are trying to push on my nerves claiming that the situation is better than the past two years. Well with my all due respect if I would choose , I would say that 2011 was all its clashes and massacres journalists were much safer than now.
This cartoon by Doaa El Adl represents the best example on how Egyptian reporters especially the photographers.
Now the syndicate is controlled by Nasserites who are naturally biased to the Military.
According to committee to protect journalists Egypt comes in the 9th place shamefully in the worst countries for jailed journalists in 2013.
I have not heard a comment from Diaa Rashwan , the head of the syndicate about this !!
Our mainstream media is insisting to reminding us on how the current Turkish regime is giving hard times to journalists and reporters against Erdogan’s party and so on neglecting the universal fact that the one who lives in glass house does not throw people with stone.
I want to criticize the Turkish government , it is enough that they kicked out a journalist like Mahir Zeynalov because of a tweet but I can not when journalists in my own country are facing hell.Not to mention that there are journalists and public figures are referred to court because of tweets accused of defaming judiciary.
On daily basis you hear reports about journalists in Egypt facing hell and nobody is standing for their rights.
Some important information about Sohip Saad... He has been on hunger strike for 18 days now! He is mistreated in prison and all of his personal stuff (food, clothes) had been taken by the prison authoroties.. His family visits have been denied for a month now and they were not allowed to enter the court room..
ReplyDeleteThere is no way that the repression in Egypt can be kept up for much longer. Not after what happened in Ukraine, it just cannot be sustained.
ReplyDeleteUkraine's former president, the wannabe dictator Viktor Yanukovych, tried to damn protesters as terrorists, Nazis, bandits, militiamen, traitors, and foreign agents. He ordered what he called an "anti-terror operation", which was really a massacre of protesters, in what resembled the Battle of the Camel. Yet the protesters held firm despite nearly 100 deaths and withstood the assault. Yanukovych was deposed by a combination of massive revolutionary protests and his own parliament voting to oust him. Now he is wanted for mass murder.
All across the world, the hate that governments and elites are sending out is being mirrored back onto them. They are reaping the harvest that they are sowing.
The Egyptian elite will break too.
You can literally feel the change gradually sweeping the world.