Press Freedom

May 19, 2010

H.E. Mohammed Hosni Mubarak
President

Office of the President
Oruba Palace,
Sharia Oruba
Heliopolis, Cairo
Arab Republic
of Egypt

Fax: (011.20.2) 244.4319

Your Excellency:

The Overseas Press Club of America
joins other organizations concerned with freedom of expression and human rights
in protesting recent modifications of the emergency law that, while lifting the
enforcement of certain measures, nevertheless retains a host of potential
abuses of authority — including censorship of newspaper and other mass media,
monitoring of personal communications and detention of individuals,
particularly editors and reporters, indefinitely and without charges being
brought.

We are aware that on May 11 the government announced that it
would no longer exercise the emergency laws to embark on campaigns of
censorship and confiscation of media and publications, monitoring of all forms
of communications, and closing broadcasters and publishers.  And still, these activities designed to
monitor, control and disrupt the media continue, all but unabated, under other
provisions of the Egyptian press law and penal code.

The modifications are said to leave the law in place only in
cases of subversion, terrorism and drug abuse. 
The vague definition of such acts leaves to police and judicial
authorities broad latitude in the enforcement and application of the law that
is all too often abused.  Notwithstanding,
your remarks to American journalists, including television host, Charlie Rose,
that these laws are only to be invoked during proclamations of emergency; in
fact, authorities continue to use the emergency law to detain dissidents,
including journalists and respected bloggers.

Some ten thousand individuals are said to remain in Egypt’s prisons
today under the emergency laws, and few have been formally charged.  One of those detained was Hany Nazeer, who
linked to his blog a controversial book that some in his village perceived as
insulting to Islam.  The excuse that he
was detained for his own protection is scarcely credible.

Another distinguished Egyptian blogger, Abdel Karim
Suleiman, known on-line as Karim Amer, has been imprisoned for nearly four
years.  Last month, in the most recent
instance of harassment, security officers at Borg Al-Arab Prison in Alexandria entered Amer’s
cell and confiscated his notebooks as well as letters of support that had been
sent to him from around the world, according to Amer’s lawyers.  The notebooks are believed to contain his
personal writings.

Equally, the detention by State Security of the respected
novelist, Mus’ad Abul Fagr, simply because of his outspoken defense of the
rights of Sinai Bedouin, is an abuse of the emergency powers.

Particularly egregious were the beatings and detention of
journalists by police and state security officers in early April during a
demonstration in Cairo
in opposition to the emergency laws.  Samir
Amr, an Al-Jazeera correspondent; Ibrahim Kamal Eddin, a reporter for the
independent daily Nahdat Misr; Imad Fawaz, a reporter with the
opposition daily, Al-Karama; Mohamed Hussam Eldeen, a photographer with
the independent daily, Al-Masry al-Youm; and a Dream TV crew were all
reporting on the demonstrations when they were attacked, their cameras and
notebooks seized.

                                                                                                                                    (more)

As a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, the Egyptian government is mandated under Articles 9 and 19
to insure that there is no arbitrary deprivation of freedoms including freedom
of speech and the press, while safeguarding freedom of expression broadly.

In view of the broad stability and peace that has prevailed
in Egypt
for years, there would seem to be little excuse for invoking or enforcing
emergency provisions that are designed for a period of violence and
unrest.  As the government and the citizens
of Egypt approach the next presidential election, we of the Overseas Press Club of America and the broad range
of media professionals we represent, all hope that we can count on the Egyptian
government to provide every encouragement to the nation’s print, broadcast and
on-line media to report freely and fairly so that a broad range of views may be
aired, without fear or prejudice during this critical period.

The citizens of Egypt deserve no less.

Respectfully yours,

David A.
Andelman                                                                               Kevin
McDermott

Freedom of the Press
Committee

cc:

Amir Ramadan
Charge d’Affaires
Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt
3521 International Court, NW
Washington, DC  20008
Fax: (202) 244.5131

Ambassador Maged
Abdelaziz

Permanent Mission of the Arab
Republic of Egypt to the United Nations
304 East 44th Street
New York, NY  10017
Fax: (212) 949.5999

H.E. Margaret Scobey
U.S. Ambassador to Egypt

Embassy of the United States of America
8 Kamal el Din Salah
Street
Garden City, Cairo
Egypt
Fax: (011.20.2) 797.3200

Dr. Ahmed Nazif

Prime Minister
Office of the Prime Minister
Sharia Maglis esh-sha’ab
Cairo
Arab Republic
of Egypt
Fax: (011.20.2) 366.8048

The Editor

Weekly
Ahram
weekly.ahram.org.eg

The Editor

Egyptian
Gazette
editor@egy.com

Claude Salhani
The Middle East
Times
editor@metimes.com

Nahdet Misr

mickey@nahdetmisr.com

Daily
News Egypt

editor@thedailynewsgypt.com

Dreamt TV

editing@dreams.tv