Ibrahim Eissa

Egyptian court upholds Al-Jazeera conviction; strikes down prison sentence Cairo, February 11, 2008—An appeals court in Cairo today upheld the conviction of an Al-Jazeera journalist charged with harming Egypt’s reputation for her work on a documentary about torture, but struck down her prison term. In a crowded courtroom in north Cairo, Judge Hazem Wageeh read…

Egyptian court upholds Al-Jazeera conviction; strikes down prison sentence Cairo, February 11, 2008—An appeals court in Cairo today upheld the conviction of an Al-Jazeera journalist charged with harming Egypt’s reputation for her work on a documentary about torture, but struck down her prison term. In a crowded courtroom in north Cairo, Judge Hazem Wageeh read…

EGYPT The government clamped down on political opposition, tried to suppress speculation about the health of President Hosni Mubarak, and waged a steady offensive against critical journalists, bloggers, and foreign media workers. By year’s end, a full-fledged crackdown was under way, with Egyptian courts aggressively prosecuting several of the country’s leading independent editors and writers.…

TUNISIA In a July 25 speech marking the 50th anniversary of the Tunisian Republic, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali proclaimed that his government had “enriched the information and communication landscape and offered opportunity for the expression of different opinions.” It was an Orwellian moment in a year in which the Ben Ali administration stepped…

  Washington, January 22, 2008—In testimony today before the House Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee, the Committee to Protect Journalists raised concern about mounting press freedom abuses in U.S. ally nations in the Middle East and urged the U.S. government to prioritize press freedoms in its bilateral relations.  

Dear President Bush: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to you in advance of your expected meetings next week with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. We would like to draw your attention to the ongoing imprisonment of two journalist bloggers as well as to other restrictions on the press in each country.

New York, October 29, 2007—The criminal libel convictions and one-month jail terms handed down Saturday against journalists for an Egyptian opposition daily are part of a government-organized campaign to silence the press and should be overturned, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The case stems from a complaint filed by lawyers affiliated with the…

New York, September 27, 2007­­―The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed that a leading Egyptian editor charged with publishing articles about President Hosni Mubarak’s health will be tried by an emergency state security court. Meanwhile, a Cairo court handed jail terms to the chairman of an independent weekly and four of its journalists. Ibrahim Eissa,…

New York, September 26, 2007­­―The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns this week’s convictions of three editors from an opposition daily, which come amid a flurry of criminal lawsuits filed against the press by lawyers affiliated with the ruling National Democratic Party.   A criminal misdemeanor court on Monday convicted Al-Wafd Editor-in-Chief Anwar al-Hawari, Deputy Editor-in-Chief…