Egypt’s sentencing of several Al Jazeera journalists to lengthy prison terms for ‘spreading false news’ has been strongly condemned by the international community.
Australian national Peter Greste and Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy were each sentenced to seven years, while Egyptian native Baher Mohamed received an additional three years for being in possession of ammunition, which he told the court were spent casings he found during a protest. A number of other journalists with the Qatar-based international news broadcaster were sentenced to 10 years each in absentia.
Reacting to the ruling, National Union of Journalists (NUJ) general secretary Michelle Stanistreet said the sentencing was “a travesty of justice made by a kangaroo court”, and called on the British government to “do all it can to have the sentences overturned”.
Journalists around the world, including a gathering of hundreds at the BBC in London, have been holding protests against the treatment of their colleagues, highlighting the lack of press freedom in the northeast African state.
Metro Éireann, too, is critical of the ruling. There does not seem to be any evidence of false reporting by the journalists. However, Egypt’s new president, junta leader turned politician Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, has said he will not “interfere” with the judiciary over the jailing of the journalists in Cairo.
As Amnesty International says, it’s truly a dark day for media freedom.
