(EOHR/IFEX) – The following is a 12 July 2006 EOHR press release: Journalism In Egypt: Caught Between Laws And the Government On 12 July 2006, the Egyptian Organization For Human Rights (EOHR) issued its report on freedom of the press, entitled ” Journalism In Egypt: Caught Between Laws And the Government”. This report was prepared […]
(EOHR/IFEX) – The following is a 12 July 2006 EOHR press release:
Journalism In Egypt: Caught Between Laws And the Government
On 12 July 2006, the Egyptian Organization For Human Rights (EOHR) issued its report on freedom of the press, entitled ” Journalism In Egypt: Caught Between Laws And the Government”. This report was prepared as part of an EOHR campaign calling for the removal of all restrictions to freedom of expression and opinion.
The report discuses EOHR’s perspective on the draft law which the government has presented, proposing thee amendment of articles in the Penal Code concerned with publication crimes. The report also contains updated information on cases where journalists are being tried under the decrees of notorious laws such as the Emergency Laws, during the last two years.
The report is divided into four parts:
First Part: Discusses the legislative and legal restrictions to freedom of the press in Egypt.
Second Part: Outlines the differences between the draft law presented by the government to the Parliament, and the one presented by the Journalists’ Syndicate, with EOHR’s commentary.
Third Part: Has two sections.
– First Section: Presents the most important cases that EOHR has been monitoring from 2004 until July 2006, during which time the Egyptian Judiciary has reviewed 33 cases.
– Second Section: Presents the results of investigations into 52 cases of journalists being tried during the last two years.
Fourth Part: Recommendations
In the context reviewed in this report, EOHR welcomes the serious step taken by President Mubarak concerning the removal of imprisonment as a punishment for financial responsibility, as stipulated in Article 303. This controversial article had been subject to strong criticism from many quarters.
EOHR welcomes the positive development represented by the amending of that article of the Penal Code, and confirms in the recommendations included in its report that there are many other articles in the Code that need to be reviewed, especially Article 181, which punishes with imprisonment the insulting of a king or the president of a foreign country.
EOHR also suggests that a committee be formed, consisting of legal and legislative experts, to review all legislation concerned with freedom of the press, especially those articles that punish journalists with imprisonment in all laws related to expression, publishing, and printing. EOHR also recommends that military trials of journalists be prohibited.
EOHR also calls for an end to the penal prosecution of press and media offences, and for its replacement with an attitude that encourages freedom of expression, that promotes creativity in the fields of media and the press, that enables individuals to own and publish newspapers, and that removes the bureaucratic and security-related obstacles that currently affect the rights of newspaper publishers. EOHR also asserts that warrants for arrest should be replaced with notifications of an offence, and that any financial punishment for press violations should take into consideration the journalist’s social status and not exceed the value of 12 months of the journalist’s salary.
EOHR also calls for the drafting of a law that would criminalize the withholding of information from journalists by any public or governmental organ and for the lifting of all restrictions that might hinder access to information, so long as this does not compromise national security.
