(RSF/IFEX) – In a 16 August 1999 letter to President Mubarak, RSF protested the 14 August sentencing of three journalists to two years in prison with labour for libelling Deputy Prime Minister Youssef Waly. RSF expressed its “deep concern over this conviction” and “urged the President to secure the release of the journalists”. In 1998, […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a 16 August 1999 letter to President Mubarak, RSF protested
the 14 August sentencing of three journalists to two years in prison with
labour for libelling Deputy Prime Minister Youssef Waly. RSF expressed its
“deep concern over this conviction” and “urged the President to secure the
release of the journalists”. In 1998, at least six journalists were
sentenced to between six months’ and one year’s imprisonment for libel.
The editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper “Al-Sha’b”, Magdi Hussein,
reporter Salah Bdeiwi and cartoonist Essam Hanafi were also fined 20,000
Egyptian pounds (US$5,900) each. A fourth journalist, Adel Hussein, a
columnist, was also fined the same amount. In 1998, Magdi Hussein, along
with another journalist, Mohammed Hilal, was sentenced to one year in
prison, but the sentence was quashed by the appeal court and the two
journalists were released after four months in custody.
Similarly to the United Nations (U.N.) Commission for Human Rights, RSF
“considers that sentencing journalists to jail terms is out of proportion
with the harm done to the victim, whatever the offence.” “The journalists
only expressed their views, which, as long as they do not support violence
and hatred, must be respected even if they are controversial and scandalise
mainstream opinion.” The organisation condemned “the systematic charges of
libel filed by those involved in cases of corruption and the abuse made of
the 1996 press law which was designed to suppress freedom of expression and
to force journalists to practise self-censorship.” Therefore, RSF repeated
“its demand to see this law repealed and changed into a legislation more
respecful of diversity of opinion.”
