Abeer Saady

Well known in the Egyptian media, Abeer Saady has been writing constantly in Arabic and English on the most important subjects for the past 23 years. Whether at the Libyan war front or on the streets of Cairo, she seems to be everywhere. Hundreds of journalists throughout the Middle East know her, as she has given safety training to journalists working in hostile areas in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan, Bahrain and elsewhere. As well as being deputy editor of the daily Al-Akhbar, she has been elected vice-president and member of the board of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate for three terms, and ran its training department, hosting seminars and training sessions. But now she has had enough. Publicly criticizing the union’s silence in the face of all the arrests, violence and murders targeting journalists, she has announced that she is freezing her involvement. She urged her colleagues to consider the “catastrophic ramifications of silence in response to this attack on the safety, security and dignity of journalists.” Twelve journalists have been killed in Egypt since 2011 and more than 20 are currently detained.