Al Jazeera Journalists Speak From Behind Bars in Cairo
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Version 0 of 1. Speaking to reporters during a recess in their trial in Cairo on Thursday, two Al Jazeera journalists, wearing prison whites and shouting from inside a cage, denounced a prosecutor’s claims that they had facilitated terrorism and sought the downfall of the Egyptian state by reporting on current events before their arrest last year. According to video and Twitter updates filed from the courtroom by foreign correspondents, the Al Jazeera journalists — Peter Greste, an Australian correspondent, and Mohamed Fahmy, an Egyptian producer — both agreed with their defense lawyer that the charges against them amounted to the criminalization of ordinary journalism. They were in the dock alongside a colleague, Baher Mohamed, who is also on trial. Mr. Fahmy, who claimed that the reporters were “hostages” in a political battle between Egypt and Qatar — the nation that owns Al Jazeera and has supported the Muslim Brotherhood — shouted from the cage, “You are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty; in this situation, you are guilty the second you are arrested, treated worse than criminals and rapists and killers.” A correspondent for The Guardian, Patrick Kingsley, reported that Mr. Fahmy, known on Twitter as @Repent11, added, in reference to the toppling of Egypt’s elected president by the military last summer, “If we’re in jail because we called it a coup, why isn’t CNN, BBC in the cage? Why isn’t every journalist in the cage?” After the prosecution asserted that the crew’s aim in reporting on protests against the military-backed government and the sexual harassment of female demonstrators was to undermine the state, Mr. Greste asked: “Where are the facts we got wrong? Where is the footage we manipulated? They speak only in generalizations!” according to Louisa Loveluck, a British reporter. Ms. Loveluck also posted video on Instagram of Mr. Fahmy insisting that the trial “is about democracy and a free press.” The officials who took power last year, after the military forced the elected president, Mohamed Morsi, from the presidency, “don’t believe in free press,” he said. Other journalists filing Twitter updates from the courtroom included Jared Malsin, a contributor to Time magazine; Claire Read of BBC Arabic; and Alex Ortiz of CBS News. Later on Thursday, the court adjourned the trial until June 16, when the defense lawyers are scheduled to conclude their closing statements. The prosecution claimed that the reporters had undermined Egypt’s reputation and aided the Muslim Brotherhood, which was recently the dominant political faction in Egypt but has now been banned as a terrorist group by the military-backed government. But online observers of the court proceedings suggested that putting journalists on trial was itself far more damaging to the country’s image. |