Press Freedom
CPJ Updates
- New Guatemalan president must work hard to improve press freedom
- Governments around the world crack down on journalists covering COVID-19
- Philippines COVID-19 state of emergency includes prison time for spreading ‘false news’
- Trust deficit: About This Report
- Trust deficit: Guatemala's new president must overcome skepticism to improve press freedom
- Trust deficit: 'The goal was to silence me'
- Journalist Adnan Rashidi tortured, robbed in Iraqi Kurdistan
- Iraqi security forces seize journalist’s belongings for allegedly violating COVID-19 curfew
- Egypt expels Guardian reporter Ruth Michaelson over COVID-19 coverage
Reporter Without Borders
- As doubt persists on North Korea’s “zero” coronavirus cases, RSF urges for transparency
- China’s diplomats must stop attacking media over coronavirus reporting
- The Council of Europe must review Hungary's new Coronavirus Emergency Law for the sake of press freedom
- Orbán’s Orwellian law paves way for “information police state” in Hungary
- Mexico. Woman journalist gunned down in Mexico’s Vera Cruz state
- Brazil’s president attacks media instead of combatting coronavirus
- Thailand uses Covid-19 to restrict the freedom to inform
- Myanmar editor could be jailed for life over rebel interview
OPC Repeats Demand for Release of 3 in Egypt
Since December 29, 2013, authorities in Egypt have held three Al Jazeera journalists under detention allegedly for spreading falsehoods about the country and for being part of a terrorist organization. At the end of 2013, the Overseas Press Club of America issued an open letter demanding the immediate freedom of Cairo Bureau Chief Mohamed Fahmy, producer Baher Mohamed and correspondent Peter Greste. Since then, the OPC has learned of the conditions under which Fahmy is being held.
Fahmy, a dual Canadian-Egyptian citizen is being kept in a windowless room without a bed in Cairo’s notorious Scorpion Prison. His pre-existing shoulder injury has been exacerbated by the arrest and incarceration but so far prison authorities have refused him medical assistance. They have also refused to deliver to Fahmy a sleeping bag and pillow delivered by his family. A family member who recently visited the prison says that Fahmy looked disoriented and struggled to recognize the visitor at first. Fahmy’s family fears he is being subjected to physical and psychological torture.
The OPC not reiterates its demand for the freedom of Fahmy and his colleagues but asks the Egyptian authorities and General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to make sure the detainees receive proper medical care and be accorded humane treatment amid this unjustifiable incarceration.