- Human RightsReports
- October 15, 2008
- 4 minutes read
EOHR Campaign Against Penalties On Publishing Cases
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights announced the organization of a national campaign for solidarity with journalists who are facing trials under the slogan, “No To Penalties That Take Away Publishing Liberties” in its statement issued on October 13.
The statement clarified that the constitution and international covenants have secured the rights of thought and speech as they have set a maximum amount of fines as a penalty for their violation. This is especially since the person harmed by any publication has the right to retaliate from the paper itself and civilly allege to be properly compensated in front of the civil court, if a press violation was proved to be committed.
The statement further stressed the importance that legislative amendments related to the execution of the Presidential Promise include the articles detaining journalists, laws related to freedom of speech, publication, and printing, and those banning military news and trial decisions, in addition to the Party and Intelligence Laws. Moreover, it stressed the importance of ending the violations of press freedom on the part of the Executive Authority, and that measures be taken to guarantee journalists” safety.
The statement listed three publishing cases currently in the courts including full reports of these cases and the most recent updates on them. The three cases are: The case of the Editors-In-Chief of the newspapers of Al-Dustour, Al-Fajr, Al-Karama, Sawt El-Ummah, the case of the Sheikh of Al-Azhar against Adel Hammouda and Mohamed El-Baz, and that of Ezz against Abdel-Halim Qandil.