The Press Syndicate is up in arms over the recent prison sentencing of three journalists for libelling a government minister. Salonaz Sami reports The Press Syndicate continued to react to last week's court ruling sentencing three journalists to prison. On Sunday, hundreds of journalists gathered at the syndicate's downtown headquarters to discuss the steps that needed to be taken to pass a new press law that prohibits prison terms for publication offences. The walls were plastered with posters that said, "No to imprisonment sentences" and "Freedom of the press equals exposing corruption". These were all in response to the 17 April sentencing of Abdel-Nasser El-Zoheiri, Youssef El-Awwi and Alaa El-Ghatrifi to one year in prison and an LE10,000 fine each, for the libel and slander of Housing Minister Ibrahim Suleiman. The court ruling triggered heated debate over why President Hosni Mubarak's promise to eliminate jail terms for publication offences had yet to come to fruition. Commentators hailed the announcement, made by Mubarak some 14 months ago, as a step in the right direction. On Sunday, Press Syndicate Chairman Galal Aref said, "the changes we seek to implement are clear. Freedom of expression is a basic step towards political reform. Since journalism is every nation's mirror, reflecting its problems, worries and needs, [journalists'] status ought to be altered for the well-being of the entire community." Commentators said the fact that journalists can still be jailed for publishing offences severely restricts their freedom of expression. Syndicate Council member Salah Abdel-Maqsoud, a journalist with the banned Al-Shaab newspaper -- the mouthpiece of the Islamist-oriented Labour Party -- said, "freedom of the press is the mother of all freedoms, and cannot be effective as long as the sword of incarceration hangs over journalists' necks." A joint Justice Ministry/Press Syndicate committee is currently studying the possibility of a revised press law that bans prison sentences for publication offences, and also features a set of more precise definitions for press violations instead of the vague and complicated ones being used right now. According to lawyer Mohamed Nour Farahat, fundamental and potentially sensitive parts of the press law -- "such as those involving the president, the army, high-level officials and security forces" -- were not being touched. Legal consultant Said Al- Gamal, a member of the joint committee, said punishments, "should fit the crime -- as acknowledged by the Supreme Constitutional Court; as such, the punishment for a crime like defamation should be a fine, not a prison term." Suleiman's lawsuit against the three journalists -- who write for the independent daily Al- Masry Al-Youm, accused them of libel and slander in an article entitled "Ibrahim Suleiman's office searched", published last August. Opposition MP Hamdin Sabahi, a left- leaning Nasserist journalist, said journalists needed to take more concerted action to obtain the freedoms they want. A collective sit-in was one of the Sabahi's ideas. "We need to first understand that we're dealing with a manipulative system that can't fulfil its own promises, and that we've got to fight for our freedoms," he said. Leftist MP El-Badri Farghali said the law, as it is now, "not only imprisons journalists, but all Egyptians, and their right to the truth via a free press." Farghali said today's "open media skies" meant that anything "the government wants to prevent from being published here will find its way out via other channels." As such, he argued, it would be to Egypt's own benefit to "let journalists write freely, instead of slaughtering them" with unfair laws. Although the joint committee is nearly finished with its work, many journalists remain sceptical that the People's Assembly could pass a revised law before it recesses in June.
