Egypt

New York, May 20, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a criminal defamation lawsuit filed by Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit against independent journalist Hamdi Kandil. He faces up to six months in jail and a discretionary fine if convicted.

Judging by what’s transpired in recent weeks, press freedom in Egypt is in a deplorable state. To hear that Egyptian police abused and illegally detained peaceful protestors who took to the streets on April 6 is par for the course. To read that police and plainclothes thugs also beat and detained journalists, confiscating and destroying video footage and notes, is revolting but, unfortunately, quite predictable. But to learn that elements of the state security apparatus may also have posed as journalists to monitor civil society and opposition activists marks a new low for the Egyptian state.

New York, April 29, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns an campaign of harassment and intimidations against imprisoned Egyptian blogger Abdel Karim Suleiman, known online as Karim Amer. 

New York, April 7, 2010—Uniform and plainclothes Egyptian security forces assaulted and obstructed journalists trying to cover protests in Cairo on Tuesday, according to news accounts and interviews. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the actions and calls for authorities to stop harassing journalists reporting from the scene of news events.

New York, March 17, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the arrest of an Israeli journalist on assignment in Egypt. Yotam Feldman was arrested Sunday near the Egyptian-Israeli border while reporting on African immigrants illegally crossing into Israel, according to news accounts. 

New York, March 11, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a court decision to sentence the popular and award-winning Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas, left, to six months in prison and calls on Egyptian authorities to put an end to years-long harassment leveled against him.

New York, March 1, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Egyptian authorities to drop the charges against blogger Ahmad Mostafa, who is facing up to one year in prison pending the outcome of his ongoing trial in a military court.

Naziha Rejiba, editor of the Tunisian online publication Kalima and a 2009 International Press Freedom Awardee, helped us launch the new edition of Attacks on the Press at a press conference today in Cairo.