There can be no winners in the confrontation between the independent press and the government, writes Shaden Shehab The Agouza Misdemeanours Court last Thursday handed down 12-month prison sentences to four of Egypt's most outspoken editors-in-chief. Ibrahim Eissa of Al-Dostour, Wael El-Ibrashi of Sawt Al-Umma, Adel Hammouda of Al-Fagr and Abdel-Halim Qandil, the former editor of Al-Karama, were also fined LE20,000 and granted bail for a further LE10,000 pending appeal. The ruling came a day after the state security prosecutor announced Eissa will face a second trial, beginning 1 October, on charges of publishing false information concerning President Hosni Mubarak's health. By giving credence to the rumours, says the prosecution, Eissa acted against the public interest. In announcing the sentence, Judge Sherif Ismail said the four journalists were guilty of libelling senior figures in the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), including President Mubarak, Assistant Secretary- General Gamal Mubarak and Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif. They did so, Sherif continued, in a manner calculated to "abort national spirit and trust". The case, filed by an NDP lawyer last year, is being viewed by commentators as evidence of the regime's growing unwillingness to tolerate an increasingly confident independent press. "The NDP has decided it can no longer afford newspapers that expose malpractice and corruption and that is why we were convicted. It is a signal that anyone who stands up to the NDP will be gotten rid of," El-Ibrashi told Al-Ahram Weekly. "What is odd about the case is that the state is actually saying that the public believes the independent press and not the NDP or the government. Why else would they accuse us of undermining national security?" The case also underlines the growing tensions between the state-owned, so-called national press, and its independent competitors. In a meeting at the Press Syndicate on Sunday journalists decided to wait for two weeks before deciding on their response to the verdict. During the cooling off period senior journalists will attempt to open channels of communication with the state in an attempt to have the cases against the four withdrawn. The move was welcomed by a senior government official. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he told the Weekly the proposed dialogue should begin soon and be conducted between the Press Syndicate and the Higher Press Council. Its aim, he said, should be to seek "an honourable exit that preserves press freedom while preventing transgressions". "The prerogatives that come with freedom of expression have responsibilities attached," said the source, who added that the independent press was not solely responsible for the crisis. The official press, he argued, must share some of the blame for failing to win the levels of trust among the readers that would allow it to effectively counter the "politically motivated misinformation" printed in some independent newspapers. The official view, he insisted, was that the sooner the crisis was over the better. Sunday's meeting was attended by members of the Press Council and leading journalists but only two editors-in-chief -- Al-Akhbar 's Mohamed Barakat and Al-Hilal 's Magdi El-Daqqaq -- from the state-owned press. Should their appeals to the authorities fail, attendees vowed they will call on other professional syndicates, political parties and civil organisations to join in a campaign of protest that could include sit- ins and demonstrations and see a number of papers cancel publication. In an interview with Mustafa Bakri, editor of the independent weekly Al-Osbou, President Mubarak said he remained a strong advocate of press freedom and promised there would be no return to the days when newspapers were closed by official diktat. But, he added, "there is a law that must be endorsed and bring to book anyone who deviates from the journalistic code of ethics or threatens the country's security." "[Press] freedom," Mubarak said, "is protected by laws and the constitution." "I am not against criticism," continued Mubarak, "but there is a difference between constructive criticism that seeks to benefit society and destructive criticism which seeks to undermine it... The latter is not criticism but an abuse of freedom of the press that serves [political] forces that seek to target Egypt's security and stability." International human rights organisations have blasted the court ruling. "The trial of the four editors... is part of an ongoing attack against the free press in Egypt," said Amnesty International. Human Rights Watch issued a statement saying, "press freedom cannot exist in a country where the state puts you in prison simply for criticising the president" and called on the government to repeal laws that allow "writers and editors to be imprisoned solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression". The four editors were sentenced under Article 188 of the Egyptian Penal Code which stipulates that anyone who "publishes false news, statements or rumours likely to disturb public order" can face a one-year prison sentence and a fine that does not exceed LE20,000. Journalists have launched a number of campaigns against custodial sentences for publication offences in the past, most notably in 1995 and 2006, when the NDP attempted to introduce several new articles in the press law. They had limited success in opposing the moves, and provisions for custodial sentences remained in both the press law and penal code. Abdallah Kamal, editor-in-chief of the state-owned Rose El-Youssef, is one of the fiercest critics of the independent press. "We are against custodial sentences for journalists," he insists, before adding that this does not include "journalists who use their newspapers as a means to blackmail and incite chaos or as a tool to spread lies and rumours." Salah Eissa, editor-in-chief of the weekly Al-Qahira, argues that the independent and state-owned press should call a truce at least until the storm calms. It is in the hands of the NDP to defuse current tensions, he says, since the party could act to withdraw a lawsuit prosecuted in its name and which has "harmed the party far more than any of the articles published by the four newspapers". Prominent journalist Magdi Mehanna has appealed for unity in the face of attacks against the press. Otherwise, he says, "our cause will be lost." The real battle is not with state-owned newspapers but with the state, he told the Weekly. Many commentators argue that the judgement against the four editors-in-chief should not be viewed in isolation but as part of a wider campaign to curb criticism of the government that within the last week alone has included a ban being placed on the Muslim Brotherhood's annual Iftar for the first time in 20 years and the closure of the Association for Human Rights Legal Aid, an NGO that has been leading the campaign against torture in prisons and police stations.
