The arrest of a journalist covering demonstrations raises questions about when the amendment to the press law will be enforced, reports Salonaz Sami Mohamed Reda, a journalist working for Afaaq Arabiya, the magazine published by the Liberal Party, was arrested in Al-Sharqiya Governorate last week while covering a demonstration organised by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Press Syndicate Council responded quickly, issuing a statement condemning Reda's detention and requesting his immediate release. Less than a month earlier, on 17 April, Al-Masry Al-Youm journalists Abdel-Nasser El-Zoheiri, Youssef El-Awwi and Alaa El-Ghatrifi received 12-months prison sentences and were fined LE10,000 each by a Cairo criminal court which upheld claims they had libeled Housing Minister Ibrahim Suleiman. Journalists Without Borders -- an international organisation monitoring cases brought against journalists -- sent a letter to Al- Mohammady Qonsowah, head of Cairo's criminal court, calling for the sentences to be quashed. "In view of President Hosni Mubarak's promise to journalists in February 2004 to abolish prison sentences for publishing offences, we appeal to the common sense of the Egyptian courts," the organisation said. "Sentencing journalists to a year in prison for libel runs counter to the Egyptian constitution, which in principle guarantees press freedom, and to the international standards ratified by Egypt, especially the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Egypt cannot throw journalists in prison and at the same time hope to demonstrate its will to advance the human rights situation. We call on the Cairo criminal court to quash the prison sentences passed on these three journalists." Magdi El-Gallad, editor of Al- Masry Al-Youm, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the journalists' lawyers had already appealed the verdict and are now hoping that the Appeals Court will overturn the ruling. The journalists' own code of ethics, says El-Gallad, prohibits any intent to slander. "If a journalist does so he is obliged to publish any correction sent by a reader in the place and equal in space to the original story." On Sunday Muslim Brotherhood and Kefaya movement members demonstrated in front of the Press Syndicate's downtown headquarters protesting Reda's imprisonment among other things, and raising the slogans "We are not going to leave you Reda", "Reda is not the first and won't be the last" and "the imprisonment of Reda is a crime." Egypt, say Reporters Without Borders, is one of only 19 countries that continue to imprison journalists. "Reda was arrested while doing his job, he was not participating in the demonstrations," says Mohamed Abdel-Quddous, head of the Press Syndicate's Freedom Committee. "We are not calling for journalism or journalists to be exempted from the rule of law," he says, "but how can we do our job if we are going to be arrested for doing it?" A second protest demanding the release of Reda took place in front of the Syndicate on Tuesday. Hossam Al-Oteifi, another Afaaq Arabiya journalist, told the Weekly that Reda was arrested not because he was covering the demonstration but had been singled out because of earlier problems with state security. Al-Oteifi said several journalists on the same magazine were almost detained while covering last week's Muslim Brotherhood demonstration in front of the Mustafa Mahmoud Mosque in Cairo. "State security officers restricted our movement and we would have been detained had it not been for a phone call from the head of state security." Abdel-Nasser El-Nouri, a photographer from the daily Al-Masry Al- Youm, was also threatened with detention. "They wanted to take the film out of my camera but fortunately it was digital, and they couldn't open it to take the disk." Journalists accused of violating the profession's own code of ethics face an investigative committee. If found guilty they face a disciplinary board that decides the appropriate penalty -- either a fine, suspension from work or expulsion from the syndicate.
