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EOHR Organizes a roundtable discussion entitled
" Towards a law that abolishes imprisonment in publication cases"
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9/2/2006
EOHR organizes a roundtable discussion entitled " Towards a law that abolishes imprisonment in publication cases" in which requested amendments to abolish imprisonment penalties in publication and opinion suites will be discussed. The event will take place on Sunday 12th of March 2006 at Pyramiza Hotel, Dokki, with the participation of a group of professors in journalism and media, editors in chief, members of parliament and human rights activists.
The discussion will be divided into three sessions, the first will tackle the violation of the freedom of journalism in Egypt, including testimonies of journalists subjected to mal-treatment and harassments and how they where interrogated and tried in the Public Prosecutor and courts. The second session will discuss the obstacles for issuing a law that abolish imprisonment of journalists. The third session will discuss the proposed amendments to abolish the imprisonment penalty in publication cases and the role of the Journalists' Syndicate in protecting journalists from punishments that restrict their freedoms.
The discussion mainly aims to discuss the dilemma of issuing a law that annuls the imprisonment of journalists and the obstacles facing the issuing of this law. Despite that two years have passed on the presidential promise to abolish such punishment.
EOHR adopts a draft law prepared by the Journalists' Syndicate to amend Law 96/1996 ( Journalism Law, Articles 20,21,22,28) and the Egyptian Penal Code (Article 171,302,303,306,307) and to present this draft law publicly and to present it to the Peoples' Assembly and the Shura Council. It will be discussed also the possibility of applying fines as a penalty in publication suits but with fixing a maximum to this fine, especially that the defendant always has the right to respond in the same newspaper and to demand a suitable compensation in front of a civil court. It will also be discussed the possibility of establishing a separate judicial organ to be specialized in publication suites.
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