Egyptian Journalists fined, spared prison, for insulting the president
Egypt, Politics, 3/6/2007

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information spoke last week about two Al-Dostour journalists fined for journalistic reports.

It said last Wednesday that Judge Ismail Abu Kerisha of the Misdemeanor Appeal Court in Al-Warak sentenced Ibrahim Eissa, editor-in-chief of the independent weekly "Al-Dostour," and Sahar Zaki, a journalist with the newspaper, to a fine of 22,500 Egyptian pounds (approx. US$3,952). Eissa and Zaki were accused of insulting the Egyptian president and disturbing public order in case number 22378/2006.

The case began with a news story titled "A Citizen from Waraq El-Arab Calls for Putting Mubarak and his Family on Trial and Committing them to Return 500 Billion Pounds from the Public Sector and Foreign Aids," published in Issue no. 55 of "Al-Dostour" on 5 April 2006. Journalist Sahar Zaki only described the incident in her news story.

Eissa and "Al-Dostour" are working hard to protect press freedom and freedom of expression from the enemies of press freedom in Egypt. We welcome the decision of the court to drop the one-year imprisonment sentence by the Misdemeanor Court in Waraq on 26 June 2006. However, the fine is also a penalty, which comes within the context of state policy to repress freedom of expression, as was the case with blogger Abdul Kareem Sulieman and Al-Jazeera reporter Huweida Taha. That is in addition to the defamation campaigns against Hala Sarhan, Nawal El-Saadawy, and others," the organizations's Lawyer Rawda Ahmed said.

"All of (this) comes in contradiction with the regime's claims of democratic reform; claims that the regime has not stopped reiterating," she added.

Previous Stories:
  Concern Egypt new anti-terror law may infringe on rights   (2/21/2007)
  Al-Jazeera producer charged with harming national interest   (2/4/2007)
  Imprisoned Egyptian blogger faces years in prison for criticizing Islam   (1/27/2007)

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