EGYPT: Journalists Challenge New Press Law

By Adam Morrow Reprint | | Print |

Adam Morrow

CAIRO, Jul 17 2006 (IPS) - Many journalists and opposition leaders are opposing a new law approved by parliament this week. They say the law fails to protect editors and reporters from imprisonment for so-called press violations.

“The passage of this law actually represents a slight deterioration (of press freedom),” Hisham Kassem, vice-chairman of the leading independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm told IPS.

The law was passed Jul. 9 by the People’s Assembly, where the ruling National Democratic Party of President Hosni Mubarak enjoys considerable majority. Several hundred journalists and opposition members gathered outside the parliament building in Cairo to demonstrate against the legislation.

The semi-independent Journalists Syndicate strongly opposed the law.

In further protest, dozens of opposition and independent newspapers refused to publish their Sunday editions, and asked readers to boycott broadsheets published by the state.

“We took the decision to take a stand and register our disapproval, along with several other publications, with a unified position against the new law,” Kassem said.

Many publications have decided to disregard the legislation, he said. “Under the unified position of 25 opposition and independent newspapers, we’ve decided to ignore this legislation, and are prepared to suffer the consequences.”

Several papers not affiliated to the government, including Nasserist weekly Al-Arabi and long-time opposition daily Al-Wafd have joined an informal coalition of publishers that has decided to defy the new legislation.

Journalists have long complained about the earlier 1996 press law that gave authorities power to arrest editors and reporters on loosely defined libel charges.

Under that law, libel was punishable by a maximum of one year in prison along with fines of up to 5,000 Egyptian pounds (about 900 dollars). What was held to be libel against public officials could mean two years in jail and a fine of up to 3,500 dollars.

In February 2004 Mubarak told a Press Syndicate conference that the law would be amended to disallow imprisonment of journalists for publication offences, and that jail terms would be replaced with hefty fines for offending publications.

“Nobody in Egypt will be imprisoned again for their opinions,” Press Syndicate chairman Galal Aref declared at the time.

But despite that promise the restrictive legislation remained in place, and reporters were imprisoned for writing critically about government officials.

Only last month two journalists from the independent weekly Al-Dustour were sentenced to a year in prison and each fined 10,000 Egyptian pounds (about 1,750 dollars) for articles critical of the President.

Al-Dustour – which only returned to newsstands last year after a seven-year ban for outspoken criticism of the government – is traditionally known for taking bold positions against the regime.

International human rights watchdogs strongly condemned the sentences against the journalists.

“Taken together with President Mubarak’s empty promise, the continuing prosecutions of outspoken journalists demonstrate this government’s hostility towards independent journalism,” the New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a press release Jun. 26. “We call on Egypt to put an end to the egregious practice of prosecuting journalists for their work.”

The new press law upholds the government’s right to imprison journalists, and to levy even steeper fines for perceived offences.

Not unlike the previous legislation, such offences include publishing material critical of the President, parliament, government ministries and even foreign heads of state.

The new law provided also at first for imprisonment of journalists who impugn the financial integrity of government officials or state employees – a stipulation many critics say was designed to shield corrupt officials from public censure.

But in an effort to temper popular disapproval of the legislation, Mubarak quickly requested parliament to delete this last provision. As a result, reporters can no longer receive jail terms for questioning the financial integrity of state officials, although they will be subject to even steeper fines.

In the Jul. 12 edition of government mouthpiece Al-Gomhouriyah, Mubarak stressed his rejection of jail sentences for journalists “despite the transgressions and incorrect behaviour that some of them commit.” The President was then quoted as saying, “We want objective journalism based on constructive criticism, not on insults and fabrications.”

Kassem is doubtful of the sincerity of the President’s intervention. “It was either a cheap ploy, decided on in advance, or it was simply a realisation that the passage of the new law would just be too costly politically.”