Cairo: Fresh tensions have erupted between Egyptian journalists and the government after the head of their union and two aides received two years in prison each, a precedent since the country’s Press Syndicate was founded 75 years ago.
On Saturday, the Cairo Misdemeanour Court passed the sentences against the union’s chairman, Yehia Qallash, his deputy Khalid Al Balashi and secretary-general Jamal Abdul Rehim after convicting them of harbouring two wanted journalists.
In May, police raided the independent union’s premises in central Cairo and arrested the two journalists — Amr Badr and Mahmoud Al Saqqa — who were charged with inciting street protests against Egypt’s planned transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.
The police raid triggered protests by the journalists at the time.
The court also on Saturday ordered Qallash and the two aides to pay bail of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (Dh2,364) each pending an appeal.
“We have not committed a crime,” Qallash said at a press conference in the union’s headquarters on Saturday night.
“We’ll defend this entity [the Press Syndicate] with all what we have. It would have been better if the crime of storming the syndicate by security forces had been investigated.”
Qallah, 62, described the ruling as shocking.
He said that a general assembly for the union’s members will be held on Wednesday to look into “escalation measures”.
As he spoke, dozens of angry journalists protested against the jail sentences outside the union’s building. Policemen, stationed metres away, looked on without intervention.
The syndicate said it will appeal the verdicts against the three leading journalists.
“This sentence should not distract us from other priorities of the journalists’ community,” Al Balashi, a co-defendant, said.
“We should continue our battles for protecting the profession,” he told Gulf News. “These issues include the repercussions of the recent economic measures on journalists,” he added, referring to Egypt’s flotation of its local pound and cutting subsidy on fuel earlier this month.
“There is also the battle for freedom of our jailed colleagues,” he added.
Some 28 journalists have been detained in Egypt while covering the country’s unrest that followed the army’s 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi, according to the syndicate.
“Journalists and the press profession have faced restrictions in recent years,” added Al Balashi, who heads the syndicate’s freedom committee.
However, some journalists have broken ranks with their union over the ongoing dispute.
One of them is Nashwa Al Hufi, known for her staunch support of the government.
“The ruling against the syndicate’s three members has nothing to do with freedom of opinion and expression. It is related to violating the law by failing to hand over wanted people to authorities,” she said in a tweet.
The row marks a new twist in the already tense relations between Egyptian journalists and the government since President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi took office in mid-2014.
Al Sissi has repeatedly criticised the media for causing problems to Egypt by publishing what he said were inaccurate reports.
In recent months, there has been increasing criticism by rights groups of allegedly massive police abuse and restrictions on the media in Egypt, accusations denied by the government.
