HRW: Egypt Need to Reform Laws Used to Silence Critics

Human Rights Watch issued a statement May 3rd in which Joe Stork, HRW Deputy Director -MENA, said “Egypt’s sorry record of torture is only made worse by its practice of punishing journalists who dare to speak about it.”
The statement came after Howaida Taha, Al Jazeera reporter was sentenced 6 months in prison for producing a documentary on Egyptian authorities systematic torture of citizens.

Human Rights Watch
Egypt: Prison for Al-Jazeera Journalist Who Exposed Torture
Need to Reform Laws Used to Silence Critics
(Cairo, May 3, 2007) – The sentencing of Al-Jazeera journalist Huwaida Taha Mitwalli to six months in prison for her reporting on torture in Egypt makes a mockery of World Press Freedom Day, Human Rights Watch said today.

Mitwalli, an Egyptian national who also reports for the London-based daily Quds al-Arabi, was convicted by a Cairo criminal court on May 2 for “possessing and giving false pictures about the internal situation in Egypt that could undermine the dignity of the country” in connection with an Al-Jazeera documentary about torture in Egypt. The court also fined her 20,000 Egyptian pounds (US$3,518).
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