Massacre of the Egyptian press

Ibrahim Eissa, one of the most courageous independent journalists in Egypt, has just been sentenced to a year in prison on charges that his newspaper al-Dustour published false and malicious rumours about the death of Hosni Mubarak, and also of insulting Mubarak and his son Gamal.   Three other editors of independent weeeklies ere also sent to jail:  Adel Hamouda, Wail al-Ibrashi, and Abd al-Halim Qandil.  This is nothing short of a massacre of Egypt's independent press.  If the American embassy in Cairo has even a modicum of pretensions to caring about such things as press freedoms, reform, or democracy then it should be issuing a very stern protest immediately.  If it doesn't, then any American who claims to care about such things should be absolutely outraged.   Docking Egypt $200 million in military aid should only be the beginning.   

UPDATE -  as several people have pointed out, there are two different cases in play here, one over the spreading of rumours and the other over the defamation of the President;  the sentences just handed down were over the latter.   Don't think this changes anything at all, but worth noting since the original post was confusing.

Comments

[Ghurab al-Bain]

It is a shameful verdict and a dark day for Egyptian press freedom, such as they are (or were). Qandil had also been abused in the past, by thugs probably in the pay of the NDP. There is a larger issue here - maybe some presidents deserve to be insulted - maybe all of them, at least some of the time.

[Jay C]

"If the American embassy in Cairo has even a modicum of pretensions to caring about such things as press freedoms, reform, or democracy then it should be issuing a very stern protest immediately. If it doesn't, then any American who claims to care about such things should be absolutely outraged."

I know: get someone to rewrite the story and set it in Iran, rather than Egypt!

You know that will be be the ONLY way to get US media (and still less the US government) to pay attention!

[Amr Gharbeia]

The sentence coincides with referring Eissa to a court for what he published regarding Mubarak's health, but it is an older case. The four editors were sentenced for criticizing the leaders of the ruling National Democratic Party. The court says you cannot criticize the party because its head is also the President, and he should be beyond criticism, and because it discredits the party. We do not want people to lose confidence in the NDP, do we?

Each editor was fined EGP 20,000 and has a choice to pay EGP 10,000 bail and be free until the appeal court makes its decision.