The six-month sentence issued last week against Al-Jazeera producer reflects continued unwillingness to allow any criticism of the police, reports Mohamed El-Sayed The ongoing confrontation between the government and the media entered a new phase last week when Al-Nozha Felonies Court in Cairo sentenced Al-Jazeera producer in absentia to six months in prison and an LE20,000 fine for "possessing and giving false pictures about the internal situation in Egypt that could undermine the dignity of the country". In January, Taha produced a documentary on torture in Egypt, aired over two episodes last month on the Doha-based satellite channel. The court also found her guilty of shooting "scenes contrary to reality" and of "recording interviews that tarnish the image and integrity of the police". The court further said Taha had hired actors "who were dressed in police uniforms to make viewers believe [the scenes] actually happened," and that after filming she intended "to take these recordings outside the country by claiming they were media material." Taha, now in Doha, Qatar, where Al-Jazeera is headquartered, arrived in Egypt last December to film Waraa Al-Shams (Behind the Sun), a documentary about the practice of torture in Egyptian police stations. She was stopped at Cairo Airport on 13 January when 50 video tapes, a laptop and books found in her luggage were confiscated. The Higher State Security Prosecution say the tapes include "unedited scenes of fabricated incidents of torture and assaults by individuals wearing police uniforms on others playing the roles of male and female suspects in studios set up to look like police stations." "The footage contained reconstructions to be used in her documentary and I had already obtained a licence from the Ministry of Interior to shoot the documentary and another licence from the State Information Service (SIS) to take the tapes to Doha," Taha told Al-Ahram Weekly at the time. She was subsequently charged with "practising activities harmful to Egypt's national interests" and of "possessing and transferring fabricated footage defaming the country". Released on bail, she left for Doha to prepare the editing of the documentary. "This is an unfair and vindictive decision by the court," Taha said on hearing news of the verdict in Doha. "In my country, sadly, the courts are not free." She is expected to return to Egypt to appeal the sentence. After the announcement of the sentence Hussein Abdel-Ghani, chief of Al-Jazeera's Cairo bureau, voiced concern over the steady erosion of freedom of expression in Egypt. "I'm very disturbed about mounting restrictions on freedom of expression. Writers, TV journalists and bloggers all face a crisis". "The cases of torture reconstructed in the documentary produced by Taha were not only documented by international human rights organisations but reported by the state-affiliated Human Rights Council." "Those who claim that reporting incidents of torture in Egypt tarnishes the country's image would better use their time campaigning to end the practice in Egypt's police stations. It is the fact that torture is regularly used that tarnishes the country's image, not the reporting of it." Abdel-Ghani warned that "international newspapers and TV channels would relocate to Cyprus, Lebanon and Jordan should Egypt continue to restrict the freedom of the press and of expression... and that would be really detrimental to the country's image". "The flow of information will continue, allowing the public to make informed judgements on the basis of what actually happens and not on the selective information that a government increasingly unwilling to tolerate the free flow of facts is seeking to disseminate." In one recent index of press freedom, Egypt appeared in the bottom ten countries. International human rights organisations have condemned the sentence against Taha. "Egypt's sorry record of torture is only made worse by its practice of punishing journalists who dare to speak about it," said Joe Stork, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch. "Taha's prosecution is the latest in a recent series of egregious government violations of freedom of expression," added Stork. "Instead of addressing the abuses journalists report the Egyptian government has once again used laws that violate basic freedoms to silence its critics." Reporters Without Borders also voiced outrage, saying the conviction "confirms the fears we have repeatedly voiced since the start of the year. Egypt has taken a dangerous road. The media and the Internet are now both under surveillance and are being censored with increasing openness. The authorities targeted Taha because she wanted to tackle a difficult but important issue, human rights violations in Egyptian prisons."
