|
Ibrahim Essa's trial: a new relapse for freedom of expression
|
4/9/2007
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights expresses its anxiety after summoning journalist Ibrahim Essa to be interrogated by State Security Prosecution Office concerning news published president Hosni Mubarak's health conditions.
EOHR believes that interrogating a journalist because of expressing his opinions, contradicts with the Egyptian Constitution which stipulated in Article 47 guarantees to freedom of expression and each individual had to express his opinion by any means no matter whether it is written or said , and the other international covenants especially the ICCPR " article 19" which is ratified by Egypt.
EOHR announces its inculpation for submitting journalist Ibrahim Essa to the prosecution , as it condemns in principle any negative retributions for freedom against journalists in publishing cases .
EOHR conjures the involved authorities in general and president Hosni Mubarak in specific to immediately intervene to stop the interrogations in support to justice and pursuanting the Egyptian Constitution articles .
EOHR encourages legislators to amend the legislative structure that organizes the journalism work by canceling all negative punitions for freedom and satisfy with a maximum determination mulct penalty ,particularly the prejudiced from publishing has the right to reply in the same journal and prosecute civilly to get the suitable compensation before the court ,if the journalist transgressed the law , also legislative modifications entrance that punish the journalist with prison in all laws related to expression and printing should be highly appreciated .
Regarding to the above mentioned , EOHR repeats its demands as the following :
1. Taking procedures to protect the journalists life and security against suppression or murder or detention or observation or being exposed arbitrarily .
2. Release the opinion and expression freedom for journalists and political intellectuals and encourage responsible journalism to stand one hand against whom they manipulate the journalist work to get public profit or special profit and calling for permanent government noninterference into media.
3. Form an accurate legal term to settle an account with the journalist if he/she referred to any criminal incident to scandalize specific person without an evidence and to protect him if he released issues with adequate evidences .
4. to liberate newspaper and mass media belonging to the political parties ,syndications , federations and other common Egyptian individual and reviewing the government possession of journalism and national institutions in order not to be manipulated by one owner and one party .
5. to work on assigning a legal automation to condemn any hidden information from any governmental or public body ,and eliminate any restrictions that interrupt flow of information without breaking the national security.
6. putting an end to state of emergency that is considered one of the main reason for opinion and expression's violation as the executive authority can adopt any arbitrary measures according to the emergency of law . The worst thing is the validation of newspaper and printings' censorship which imposed coincidentally with the declaration of state of emergency according to Article 48 in the Egyptian constitution. Article 3 of the emergency law gives the executive authority the permission to confiscate ,prohibition and suppress rights and freedoms and releasing them from the constitutional conditions.
|
|
