Editor and journalist on daily al-Wafd get one month's forced labour

Reporters Without Borders today condemned a sentence of one-month's forced labour imposed on editor of al-Wafd, Anwar Al-Hawari and Younes Darwish, the daily's correspondent in Assyout, 380 kms south of Cairo, for “publishing false news” about fraud by two members of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). Darwish wrote an article that appeared in March 2007 based on a meeting of the regional municipal council in Assyout, during which two lawyers, both NDP members, were accused of illegally obtaining land belonging to the ministry of Islamic affairs. The correspondent said that he had made no judgement about the two complainants but the local court nevertheless sentenced Anwar Al-Hawari and Younes Darmish to a month of forced labour. They will remain free while awaiting the outcome of their appeal, which is due to open on 5 January 2008. “The growing number of court cases brought against Egyptian journalists is in complete contradiction with Hosni Mubarak's electoral programme,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said. “He promised at the start of his new mandate to decriminalise press offences.” “The deterioration in relations between the independent and opposition press is a reminder that freedom to inform can never be taken for granted. Egyptian journalists, although freer than their colleagues in the Arabic world, have to face a return to censorship and control of the media,” the organisation said. The court ruling comes one month after three journalists on the same paper, including the editor, were sentenced on 24 September to two years in prison for “damaging the reputation of the court system”.