CAIRO: A criminal court has dropped the case against an Egyptian journalist sued by a judge for libel, a court official said Monday. The Giza Criminal Court on Monday dropped charges against Amira Malash, a reporter for the independent weekly Al-Fagr, and canceled the one-year prison sentence it handed her in March. Malash wrote in an article last September that an Alexandria court judge, Attiyah Awadh, was being investigated for corruption, citing anonymous security officials in the Mediterranean port city. The judge then sued her for libel. A court official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media said charges were dropped because Awadh withdrew his libel complaint against Malash. Monday s ruling came after an appeals court in February upheld a one-year prison sentence against another reporter from the Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper who was convicted of libeling former Housing Minister Mohammed Suleiman. Two more journalists from the independent daily were also slapped with fines. The Al-Fagr and Al-Masry Al-Youm newspapers are part of a new generation of independent Egyptian media, not connected to either the government or opposition parties that have become known for publishing articles on government corruption. In February 2004, President Hosni Mubarak promised to revoke sections of a press law that allows for prison sentences of up to two years for journalists convicted of libel. Egypt s parliament, which is dominated by Mubarak s ruling National Democratic Party, has yet to approve the change. The Cairo bureau chief for the Arab TV channel Al-Jazeera was detained last month on charges of propagating lies against the government, and was released a day later on bail. Both the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists have urged Mubarak to fulfill his promises to change the law. AP
