IHT/DSE: Anger over press law continues unabated

By Pakinam Amer
First Published: July 10, 2006

Independent and opposition newspapers strike against new law

CAIRO: Journalists continue to protest a government-proposed press law after Egypt’s People’s Assembly announced that it was prepared to pass it.
More than 20 independent and opposition newspapers and magazines launched a strike on Sunday; only national newspapers were to be seen on newsstands. Many pro-democracy and Kefaya (Enough) activists, in an act of solidarity, said they had refrained from buying the available state-owned newspapers, whose editors chose to take a less daring stance against the law.
“I am against the strike … I cannot hold back my newspaper,” daily Al-Akhbar editor-at-large Momtaz Al-Qot told The Cairo Today Show Saturday night. “We function in a country where the law should be respected. I’m against some articles in the new law but I respect the [parliament’s] legitimacy.”
“The law does not have to cater to all journalists’ demands,” added Al-Qot. “[The parliament] has to put in mind the interests of other groups within our society … [The decision-makers] have to balance out these interests.”
Meanwhile, scores of angry journalists and pro-reform activists demonstrated for hours by the gates of Egypt’s upper house of parliament, while the session, in which the draft law was being discussed, proceeded.
Activists shouted slogans, held opposition-related signs and insisted on sitting in until the end of the session. A group of syndicate members, however, moved to their headquarters to give the press their final statement on what they called “a repressive law.”
"If the majority passes the draft bill, we will not abide by it and if [the authorities] have the courage, let them imprison all of us," Gamal Fahmy, senior member of the syndicate, told AFP during the protest.
In their statement to the press, the editors on strike promised to stand firm and to continue to peacefully protest against the bill if it is finally approved in its current form. Repeatedly, the editors have called on President Hosni Mubarak to intervene and “respect his promise.” The syndicate issued a harsh statement against the members of parliament who support the law, calling them “the party of corruption.”
“Despite restrictions, [we journalists] will maintain our fierce campaign to unveil corruption, using documents and evidence, no matter what the repercussions are and despite the depressing punishments, which deny us our freedoms,” read the syndicate’s statement. “The public opinion and the grassroots support us and they are proud to do so.”
The much-anticipated law did nothing to alleviate journalist’s problem; above all it failed to fulfill Mubarak’s promises of reform and press freedom. The law, which was expected to lift harsh punishments and protect journalists from jail in “libel and slander” cases, instead sanctioned even larger fines and confirmed imprisonment for “defamation.”
An amended article also states that reporters will likely face jail terms if they report on public property and funds of public and government figures; a notion that journalists say “protects the corrupt.”
In addition to ignoring journalist’s demands, four parliamentarians and National Democratic Party members who favored the law publicly ridiculed journalists and syndicate members during one of the parliament’s sessions.
On Saturday, human rights groups denounced the law. In their statement, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRInfo) said, "The Egyptian society should unite to support the press syndicate in its demand to protect journalists and should unite against the government's insistence to violate press freedom, which is a violation of the right of the society as a whole.”
"Claiming that imprisonment is not necessary but permissible is misleading," added Gamal Eid, HRInfo executive director.

Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=2207