(CPJ/IFEX) – The Egyptian court of first instance, on 10 September 1997, decided to ban the publication of three issues of the bi-weekly newspaper “Al-Sha’b” as a result of its coverage of a pending libel suit initiated by Interior Minister Hassanal-Alfi against “Al-Sha’b” editor-in-chief Magdi Hussein and four journalists from the newspaper. The move followed […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – The Egyptian court of first instance, on 10 September 1997,
decided to ban the publication of three issues of the bi-weekly newspaper
“Al-Sha’b” as a result of its coverage of a pending libel suit initiated by
Interior Minister Hassanal-Alfi against “Al-Sha’b” editor-in-chief Magdi
Hussein and four journalists from the newspaper. The move followed
Prosecutor General Raga’ al-Arabi’s decision on 2 September to prohibit the
news media from covering proceedings of the case (see IFEX alert of 10
September 1997).
The suit was filed in retaliation for an article about the minister’s
alleged business deals with an Egyptian government minister currently in
jail on corruption charges. The court’s decision to ban “Al-Sha’b”, based on
an obscure article in Egypt’s penal code that prohibits newspapers from
reporting on legal actions in which they are defendants, is the latest
incident in the ongoing legal harassment of “Al-Sha’b” and Magdi Hussein.
Over the past two years, Hussein has been the target of several suits
brought by government officials and members of the interior minister’s
family for the paper’s coverage of official corruption (see IFEX alerts).
In a separate development, Egyptian authorities seized copies of the 17
September issue of the London-based Arabic daily”Al-Hayat”. According to a
report by the news agency Agence-France Presse (AFP), censors prevented the
edition from being printed because of an article on Sudanese President
Omaral-Bashir’s visit to the disputed Halaib region on the Egyptian-Sudanese
border.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
journalism in Egypt-calling these actions against the press clear violations
of the right to free expression as guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and Article 19 of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Egypt is a state party (The
ICCPR guarantees journalists the right to “seek, receive and impart
information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers”)
investigative journalism and the dissemination of adiversity of views and
opinions even if such views are different from those held by the government
on media coverage of Interior Minister Al- Alfi’s libelcase against “Al-Sha’b”
code which provide for the imprisonment of journalists for publications
offences and implement legal safeguards to protect journalists from
prosecution for their investigative reporting
confiscation or seizure of publications on the basis of their content
Appeals To
His Excellency Mohammad Hosni Mubarak
President of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Oruba PalaceHeliopolis, Cairo, Egypt
Fax: +202 260 5417 / 355 5700Copies to:
Farouk Seif al-Naser
Minister of Justice
Lazoghly Square
Mounira, Cairo, Egypt
Fax: +202 355 5700Amir Moussa
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Cairo, Egypt
Fax: +202 574 9149General Hassan al-Alfy
Minister of the Interior
Ministry of the Interior
Al-Sheikh Rihan Street
Bab al-Louk, CairoEgypt
Fax: +202 355 7792Ms Nayla Gabr
The Human Rights Department
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Corniche al-Nil, Cairo, Egypt
Fax: +202 574 9808Mr Raga’ al-‘Arabi
Public Prosecutor
Dar al-Qadha al-‘Ali
Ramses Street
Cairo, Egypt
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
