The government has pledged a new press law that scraps custodial sentences for publication offences while journalists remain concerned that the promise will ring hollow, writes Shaden Shehab The trial of three journalists -- Wael El-Ibrashi, the editor-in-chief of Sawt Al-Umma, Hoda Abu Bakr, a journalist on the same publication and Abdel-Hakim Abdel-Hamid, a reporter on Afaq Arabiya -- began on Sunday at the Bab Al-Khalq Criminal Court. The three are accused of publishing a list of the initials of judges who reportedly colluded with the authorities in falsifying the results of last year's parliamentary elections. Lawyer Gamal Tageddin also faces charges of having provided the journalists with the list. The courtroom was packed with journalists, civil rights activists and lawyers, many attending to express solidarity with the defendants, and chanting slogans demanding that the corrupt be tried rather than those who expose their corruption. The trial was almost immediately adjourned, to resume on 16 September, when it will be transferred to the larger Nasr City Criminal Court. Commentators have been quick to point of the similarities between the trial of the three journalists and recent disciplinary hearings against Mahmoud Mekki and Hisham Bastawisi, deputies of the chief justice of the Court of Cassation, who were said to have violated judicial rules by leaking the names of judges suspected of colluding in rigging the parliamentary vote to the press , and, significantly, to Sawt Al-Umma and Afaq Arabiya. The trial of Bastawisi and Mekki ended with Mekki being acquitted and Bastawisi receiving a reprimand. There are certainly many overlaps in the background of the cases. For just as the judges had unsuccessfully demanded to see the new draft judicial law prepared by the Ministry of Justice, and expected to be ratified by the People's Assembly within a matter of days, so the Press Syndicate has been campaigning, again unsuccessfully, to see a copy of the new draft Press Law which it is anticipated will be approved by the People's Assembly before the end of its current session in two weeks' time. Few question that the stand off between the judges -- and now journalists -- and the government is part of a wider conflict over the future of reform and the role of civil society. The Ministry of Justice draft law has been roundly condemned by board members of the Cairo Judges' Club following their meetings with government officials for failing to provide appropriate guarantees for full judicial independence from the executive. The case against the journalists was filed by Mahmoud Burham, one of the judges named in the black list. "It is the people named on the list who should be facing court proceedings, not the journalists or those principled judges who exposed them," El-Ibrashi told Al-Ahram Weekly. Editors-in-chief of national and independent newspapers met on 14 June in solidarity with Ibrashi, issuing a statement saying "it is greatly disturbing that three journalists were referred to the criminal court only four days after the ruling in the trial of Hisham Bastawisi and Mahmoud Mekki, giving a strong impression that it is the second round of the same case." Minister of Information Anas El-Fiqi and Minister of State for Parliamentary and Legal Affairs Mofid Shehab this week announced that the new press law will be endorsed during the current parliamentary session. El-Fiqi said that meetings will continue between the Ministry of Justice committee charged with drafting the new press law and the Press Syndicate. Several meetings have already taken place, and the Press Syndicate Council have been assured that their demands have been taken into account in the drafting of the new law, assurances that, in the absence of a review copy of the new law, few accept at face value, especially given that similar tactics were employed with the judges. Press Syndicate Secretary Yehia Qallash said the draft law the syndicate had itself drawn up cancelled all custodial sentences for publication offences. "We have gone to many meetings, and have continuously requested to see a copy of the new draft law before it reaches the cabinet, Shura Council and parliament," said Qallash. He warned that journalists will not stand idly by "if the government passes a law that cancels prison sentences only to shackle freedom of expression in other ways". Possible options being considered, he said, included sit-ins, demonstrations and the calling of a strike that would prevent newspapers from being published. Before the opening of the Fourth General Congress of Journalists in February 2004, President Hosni Mubarak informed Press Syndicate Chairman Galal Aref that custodial sentences for publication offences would no longer apply. Journalists applauded the move, confident that no journalist would again spend time behind bars. "It means nobody in Egypt will be imprisoned again for their opinions," Aref said at the time. It was an overly optimistic prognosis, and since that time several journalists have received prison sentences for allegedly libeling senior government officials and publishing false information. Without amending the 1996 press law, Mubarak's reassurances boiled down to nothing more than good intentions. Journalists have been campaigning for the abolition of prison penalties since Law 93 was passed in 1995, and in the face of resolute opposition from the Press Syndicate the law was eventually repealed. But its replacement, passed in 1996, also stipulated custodial sentences for certain publication offences, although for shorter terms. Under the 1996 law libel is punishable by a maximum of one year in jail, and/or a LE1,000-5,000 fine, though if the victim of libel is a public official the maximum penalty increases to two years and/or a LE5,000-20,000 fine. Meanwhile, there has been no official investigation into the wide-spread allegations of vote-rigging that marred last year's parliamentary elections.
