H.E. Mohammed Hosni Mubarak
President
Office of the President
Oruba Palace, Sharia Oruba
Heliopolis
Cairo
Arab Republic of Egypt
Your Excellency:
We write to protest your country@quot;s part in the continuing worldwide abuse of press freedom.
On this day, World Press Freedom Day, there are — to the best of our knowledge — 193 journalists imprisoned in the jails of 29 countries, most of them solely for having done their jobs. Egypt is one of the 29, and we are informed that you are holding three journalists in prison.
The Bakri brothers — Mustapha and Mahmoud — who work for the weekly, Al-Oushou, have
been in jail since June 2003, serving a one-year sentence for libel. They had accused Mohammed Abdel Al, head of the opposition Social Justice party and editor of Al-Watan Al-Arabi , of corruption. The same year, Abdel Al was sentenced to ten years in prison for taking bribes. Nevertheless, an appeals court upheld their conviction.
Worse yet, is the case of Abd al-Munim Gamal al Din Abd al-Munim, a free-lance journalist who has been imprisoned since February, 1993, apparently because he wrote articles critical of the government. He was acquitted on two different charges of belonging to a banned Islamist group; however, he remains in custody more than 11 years later, suffering from kidney and asthma problems.
Your Excellency, all of these prisoners should be released both on principle and as a matter of expediency. The principle is simple, as stated in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “”Everyone,? according to the Declaration, ?has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”” U.N. members recognize that this right is sometimes inconvenient and troublesome. Yet, it is crucial to uphold, and for practical reasons as well as principle: A nation that stifles freedom of thought and expression forfeits the good opinion of the world and isolates itself. This may prompt political or economic sanctions, with loss of diplomatic influence and domestic prosperity; at the least, it relegates a country to the company of North Korea, Cuba, or Zimbabwe. And in long or short order, a repressive regime will be overturned.
The Overseas Press Club of America, an independent organization that has defended press freedom around the world for 65 years, urges you to re-think your policy, to welcome free expression of ideas and opinions, and to release Abd al-Munim Gamal al Din Abd al-Munim, Mahmoud Bakri and Mustapha Bakri.
The courtesy of a reply would be appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
Bill Collins
Larry Martz
Freedom of the Press Committee