Open letter to President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt's electoral year

Dear Mr President, Reporters Without Borders, an international press freedom organisation, wishes to draw your attention to numerous violations of the rights of journalists perpetrated in your country since the announcement of the holding of a referendum on amending the Constitution. We consider that many obstacles have been put in the way of media coverage of events linked to the referendum. The organisation wishes to question you on four points that point to the fact that press freedom in Egypt has been seriously compromised: 1. We have first of all been particularly shocked by violent physical assaults on several women journalists, committed by members of your party under the noses of secret services members. Nawal Ali, of the opposition newspaper Al-Guil on 25 May accused members of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) of assaulting her in front of the journalists' union where she was attending an English course. They surrounded her, manhandled her before tearing her clothes, sexually molesting her and throwing her to the ground. They also stole her mobile phone, jewellery and money in her bag. Ali and the journalists' union both made an official complaint after this attack. The same day, during demonstrations in the capital, several journalists, including a British employee of the daily Los Angeles Times, were attacked. She was molested and harassed by a crowd of your supporters who threw her to the ground, kicked her in the stomach and back before running way. According to concordant sources, two women working for French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) and US news agency Associated Press (AP) were victims of the same type of attacks. An eyewitness said that plain clothes police officers, who apparently surrounded demonstrators from the opposition movement Kefaya to cut them off and beat them, went directly for the AP journalist, pulling her hair and sexually molesting her. We strongly condemn these squalid assaults, unworthy of a democracy and contrary to the Arab Charter on Human Rights. We urge the Egyptian authorities to do their utmost to find and put on trial those who attacked these women, as the law demands. Yehia Qallach, Secretary General of the journalists' union has described this "unprecedented behaviour as unacceptable and inexcusable." He said, "It has been a shock for everyone. No-one with a minimum of a conscience could accept such behaviour. What is worrying is that this is becoming a growing tendency towards women, particularly journalists and lawyers. It is a black period for free expression in Egypt. While we continue to have a long wait for the decriminalisation of press offences, the situation is only worsening." 2. Next we would like to draw your attention to bans imposed on many journalists preventing them from covering political events and the arrests that followed. According to Hussein Abd al Ghany, bureau chief of the Arab satellite channel al-Jazeera in Cairo, nine members of his staff were arrested on 13 May. First to be arrested were two journalists and a cameraman who were preparing to film an extraordinary meeting of the magistrates' senior council which they had permission to broadcast live. At the same time, two cameramen, a sound engineer and a technician were arrested outside a building while covering demonstrations both by members of the NPD supporters of the Kefaya movement. Hussein Abd al Ghany went to the spot to assist them, with journalist Samir Omar and a cameraman. Police firmly pushed him back before arresting the other two and taking them to the security services building in Cairo. According to the al-Jazeera bureau chief "it is a big step backwards for the freedom of journalists to do their job in Egypt". On 23 May a team of four people from German public television ARD, were filming a demonstration organised by the Kefaya movement, in the southern suburbs of Cairo. Police officers stopped them, pointing their guns at them. They held them there for four hours, accusing them of having distributed and stuck up anti-government posters. The driver was separated from the others and beaten. The cameraman, Obeida Habashi, said that it was "a very humiliating experience" and that they had been "treated like a gang of criminals". Two al-Jazeera journalists were given the same kind of treatment on 25 May, when they were in the process of covering demonstrations in Cairo. Journalist Lina Ghadban and a cameraman were surrounded by pro-government demonstrators who jostled them and tried to prevent the young woman from leaving. Her cameraman was taken to a police post where he was held for three hours. The same day, a large number of journalists, particularly photographers and cameramen, were prevented from approaching or entering polling stations, on the pretext that they did not have interior ministry accreditation. Their cards issued by the press centre, that issues accreditation to journalists, should have been enough to secure them access. We consider these methods to be attempts at intimidation, to prevent journalists from covering news connected with the referendum, as well as the vote itself. We remind you that these journalists are not participants in the political debate under way and their work consists of covering events to report news of public interest. 3. The third point on which we would like to question you relates to unequal access of opposition parties to state media. During the debates organised these last few months about the referendum, we have found that the opposition parties have only been allowed very little air time on public media, although they represent almost all the country's mass news outlets. Under international democratic standards, we think that all political parties should have equal access to public media so that the people are informed in a balanced way. It seems incomprehensible that the Egyptian state, after having for the first time adopted a universal suffrage system of election for the president, should not allow different candidates to express themselves fairly during the presidential election due in September. 4. Finally we ask you to modify the press code and to release journalist Abd al-Munim Gamal al Din Abd al Munim, imprisoned for more than ten years. In February 2004, you promised to modify the 1996 press law and to abolish prison sentences for press offences. Nothing concrete has been done to put this apparent act of window dressing into effect. You renewed your promise at the end of 2004, and five months have passed without you fulfilling this promise. Moreover, a state of emergency dating from 1981 forces journalists to seek permission virtually systematically and prevents them from working freely. You will understand that in our eyes, as long as Egypt does not fall in line with standards promoted by the UN, particularly in decriminalising press offences, it cannot call itself respectful of press freedom. On 21 February 1993, Abd al-Munim Gamal al Din Abd al Munim, of the pro-Islamist bi-weekly al-Shaab, organ of the Workers Party (Hizb al-Amal), was arrested at his home by state security intelligence agents. He was tried and acquitted in two successive cases but since October 1993 has been under an unlimited custody order. With presidential elections due in September and parliamentary elections in November, we call on you to take into consideration these numerous obstacles to press freedom that are unacceptable in a democracy, act therefore to improve the situation in your country and to prove to the international community your willingness to make progress in favour of free expression and human rights. Yours sincerely, Robert Ménard, Secretary-General