Condemning the suppression cycle over Egyptian reporters
Egypt has started a suppression cycle on the media. An Egyptian court has punished three reporters of TV channel Al-Jazira with three years imprisonment. All these were punished for working without press license and telecasting news harmful for Egypt by the court of Judge Haroon Fareed. Reporters having been punished in second hearing of the case are Mohd. Fahmi, Bahar Mohammed and Peter Grest. Mohd. Fahmi is presently a Canadian citizen quitting Egyptian citizenship, Bahar Mohammed belongs to Egypt and Peter Grest is an Australian citizen repatriated to Australia. Earlier all the three had been imprisoned for seven to ten years but now it has been reduced to three years. Judge Haroon Fareed said that they are neither members of Press Syndicate nor a telecaster syndicate. They were working without a license. The trio have refuted the charges framed against them. US has urged the Egyptian Government to stop this suppression and expressed its deep concern and despair....