Egypt a world leader in detaining journalists, says report

Egypt was the ninth worst offender this year for jailing journalists in a list topped by Turkey, Iran and China, according to a study released by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Wednesday.

CPJ said 2013 was the second worst year on record in terms of the number of journalists imprisoned worldwide.

Egyptian authorities detained five journalists in 2013, as compared to none in 2012, according to the study. 

But CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa consultant Shaimaa Aboul Khier told Mada Masr that one journalist, a Turkish national named Metin Turan who works for Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, was released after the study was completed on December 1, leaving four journalists detained at present.

Journalist Mahmoud Abdel Nabi, from the Rassd News Network, Al-Jazeera correspondents Mohamed Bader and Abdallah al-Shami and freelance journalist Mahmoud Abou Zeid are currently in custody.

On Thursday, the prosecution extended Shami’s detention for 45 days pending investigations.

“Following the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi on July 3 2013, the military-supported government detained dozens of local and international journalists, particularly those viewed as critical of the government or sympathetic to Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. Most were freed,” the report said.

Aboul Khier added that the detained journalists are facing charges of illegal gathering and protests, illegal arms possession and attacking police forces, “which are all wide and not specific charges.”

“These charges are completely wide, and there should be no justification for their arrests because they were arrested while doing their journalistic duties, with obligations from the organizations they work for,” she asserted.

She predicted that the number of detained journalists would rise if the research period had been longer, because the survey only included those who were detained before December 1.

An Egyptian Journalists Syndicate board member told AFP that nine journalists have been killed since the outbreak of the revolution in January 2011.

Four journalists have died in acts of violence since Morsi’s July ouster. Photojournalist Ahmed Essam was killed while covering the Republican Guards massacre in July, while Habiba Abdel Aziz of The National and Mick Deane of Sky News were killed during the deadly dispersal of the Rabea al-Adaweya sit-in on August 14. Tamer Abdel Raouf, the head of the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper’s office in Beheira, was shot dead by the Armed Forces at a checkpoint later that same day.

Additionally, three journalists have been sentenced by military courts since Morsi’s removal.

Sinai-based freelance journalist Mohamed Sabri stood trial in front of a military court during Morsi’s rule, receiving a six-month suspended sentence in November for filming in a military zone. Another Sinai-based journalist, Ahmed Abou Deraa, received a similar prison sentence on charges of publishing false news, while journalist Hatem Aboul Nour of the privately owned Al-Watan newspaper received a one-year prison sentence in October for impersonating a military officer while reporting on a story.