PEN MELBOURNE
Free Al Jazeera staff
detained in Egypt
G'day folks,
Many of you might be members of PEN International. Well, today I'm highlighting the plight of three journalists, one of whom is an Aussie, who have been treated shabbily by the Egyptian government. So, what is PEN? International PEN is the leading voice of literature and represents writers in 101 countries. The PEN Melbourne Centre is one of 145 centres worldwide. Members are united in a common concern for the art of writing and freedom of expression.
Many of you might be members of PEN International. Well, today I'm highlighting the plight of three journalists, one of whom is an Aussie, who have been treated shabbily by the Egyptian government. So, what is PEN? International PEN is the leading voice of literature and represents writers in 101 countries. The PEN Melbourne Centre is one of 145 centres worldwide. Members are united in a common concern for the art of writing and freedom of expression.
PEN was established in
England in 1921. Each centre acts independently but maintains strong links with
headquarters in London and with other centres. The organisation works locally,
regionally and internationally to understand the needs of writers and to
protect them.
The PEN Melbourne Centre
focuses on writers in prison, reconciliation, women writers and international
work, especially in the Asia and Pacific region. It campaigns on behalf of
persecuted writers and lets them know they are not alone.
EGYPT
PEN Melbourne
is appalled by the terrible news that Australian journalist Peter Greste has
been sentenced to seven years in an Egyptian prison after being found guilty by
an Egyptian court of spreading ‘false news’ and supporting the blacklisted
Muslim Brotherhood. We join with many
other human rights organisations around the world to condemn this decision,
which appears to have been made in the absence of credible evidence that would
support the charges made against Greste and his Al Jazeera colleagues,
Egyptian-Canadian journalist Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and Egyptian producer Baher
Mohamed.
PEN
Melbourne calls for the reversal of this cruel decision on behalf of our fellow
writers, journalists who have already been punished by being imprisoned
unjustly for over six months for the peaceful exercise of their profession as
reporters, and their right to free expression. We call upon the Egyptian
authorities to release the three journalists immediately and
unconditionally. PEN Melbourne is one of 145 PEN centres around
the world; PEN centres are voices for literature and freedom of expression in
their respective countries, supported by PEN International.
For more
information see http://www.pen-international.org/newsitems/egypt-al-jazeera-journalists-must-be-released/
Please
also see below, an open letter that Peter Greste sent from Tora Prison in
February:
"I am nervous as I write this. I
am in my cold prison cell after my first official exercise session – four
glorious hours in the grass yard behind our block and I don’t want that right
to be snatched away.
I’ve been locked in my cell 24
hours a day for the past 10 days, allowed out only for visits to the prosecutor
for questioning, so the chance for a walk in the weak winter sunshine is
precious.
So too are the books on history,
Arabic and fiction that my neighbours have passed to me, and the pad and pen I
now write with.
I want to cling to these tiny
joys and avoid anything that might move the prison authorities to punitively
withdraw them. I want to protect them almost as much as I want my freedom back.
That is why I have sought, until
now, to fight my imprisonment quietly from within, to make the authorities
understand that this is all a terrible mistake, that I’ve been caught in the
middle of a political struggle that is not my own. But after two weeks in
prison it is now clear that this is a dangerous decision. It validates an
attack not just on me and my two colleagues but on freedom of speech across
Egypt.
All of a sudden, my books seem
rather petty. I had been in Cairo only two weeks before interior ministry
agents burst through the door of my hotel room, that of my colleague and
producer Mohamed Fahmy, and into the home of Al Jazeera’s second producer Baher
Mohamed.
Accuracy, fairness, and balance.
We had been doing exactly as any
responsible, professional journalist would – recording and trying to make sense
of the unfolding events with all the accuracy, fairness and balance that our
imperfect trade demands.
Most of the time, it is not a
difficult path to walk. But when the Egyptian government declared the Muslim
Brotherhood to be “terrorist organisation”, it knocked the middle ground out of
the discourse. When the other side, political or otherwise, is a “terrorist”,
there is no neutral way. As George W. Bush loved to point out after 9/11, you
are either with the government or with the terrorists. So, even talking to them
becomes an act of treason, let alone broadcasting their news however benign.
The following day, the government
fleshed out its definition of the term. Anyone caught handing out Muslim
Brotherhood leaflets, or simply participating in protest marches against the
government could be arrested and imprisoned for “spreading terrorist ideology”.
The Muslim Brotherhood has lost
much of the support and credibility once had when its political leader Mohamed
Morsi became Egypt’s first democratically elected president just over a year
and a half ago. And many here hold it responsible for a growing wave of
islamist violence, but it remains the single largest and best organised social
and political force in Egypt. What then for a journalist striving for “balance,
fairness and accuracy?” How do you accurately and fairly report on Egypt’s ongoing
political struggle without talking to everyone involved?
I worried about this at the time
with Mohamed Fahmy, but we decided that the choice was obvious – as obvious as
the price we are now paying for making it.
The three of us have been accused
of collaborating with a terrorist organisation [the Muslim Brotherhood], of
hosting Muslim Brotherhood meetings in our hotel rooms, of using unlicensed
equipments to deliberately broadcast false information to further their aims
and defame and discredit the Egyptian state.
The state has presented no
evidence to support the allegations, and we have not been formally charged with
any crime. But the prosecutor general has just extended our initial 15-day
detention by another 15 days to give investigators more time to find something.
He can do this indefinitely – one of my prison mates has been behind bars for 6
months without a single charge.
“The prisons are overflowing”
I am in Tora prison – a sprawling
complex in the south of the city where the authorities routinely violate
legally enshrined prisoners’ rights, denying visits from lawyers, keeping cells
locked for 20 hours a day (and 24 hours on public holidays) and so on. But even
that is relatively benign compared to the conditions my colleagues are being
held in.
Fahmy and Baher have been accused
of being Muslim Brotherhood members, So they are being held in the far more
draconian “Scorpion prison” built for convicted terrorists. Fahmy has been
denied the hospital treatment he badly needs for a shoulder injury he sustained
shortly before our arrest. Both men spend 24 hours a day in their
mosquito-infested cells, sleeping on the floor with no books or writing
materials to break the soul- destroying tedium. Remember we have not been
formally charged, much less convicted of any crime. But this is not just about
three Al Jazeera journalists. Our arrest and continued detention sends a clear
and unequivocal message to all journalists covering Egypt, both foreign and
local.
The state will not tolerate
hearing from the Muslim Brotherhood or any other critical voices. The prisons
are overflowing with anyone who opposes or challenges the government. Secular
activists are sentenced to three years with hard labour for violating protest
laws after declining an invitation to openly support the government;
campaigners putting up “No” banners ahead of the constitutional referendum are
summarily detained.
Anyone, in short, who refuses to
applaud the institution. So our arrest is not a mistake, and as a journalist
this IS my battle. I can no longer pretend it’ll go away by keeping quiet and
crossing my fingers. I have no particular fight with the Egyptian government,
just as I have no interest in supporting the Muslim Brotherhood or any other
group here. But as a journalist I am committed to defending a fundamental
freedom of the press that no one in my profession can credibly work without.
One that is deemed vital to the proper functioning of any open democracy,
including Egypt’s with its new constitution.
Of course we will continue to
fight this from inside prison and through the judicial system here. But our
freedom, and more importantly the freedom of the press here, will not come
without loud sustained pressure from human rights and civil society groups,
individuals and governments who understand that Egypt stability depends as much
as on its ability to hold open honest conversations among its people and the
world, as it does on its ability to crush violence.
We know it is already happening,
and all of us are both moved and strengthened by the extraordinary support we
have already had, but it needs to continue.
Peter Greste
Tora prison"
Clancy's comment: Certainly sounds as though the power of the written word is mightier than the sword. The fundamental issue at stake here is the freedom of the press. I can only wish Peter Greste and his colleagues all the strength in the world as they wait for diplomats et al to do something practical.To all of you writers and authors, lend your arm to these three writers and authors and do what you can.
You can voice your protest by writing to:
Mr Khaled Rizk
Consul General of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Level 6, 50 Market Street
Melbourne Victoria Australia 3000
Consul General of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Level 6, 50 Market Street
Melbourne Victoria Australia 3000
I'm ...
Think about this!
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