Rights Group ‘Journalists For Reform’: Coup Opponents Barred from Newspapers

Journalists For Reform (JFR) rights group condemns the barring of dozens of journalists from writing in national and private newspapers because they reject the bloody military coup that perpetrated heinous crimes against the press and the media.

JFR further condemns the arbitrary measures taken against some journalists who published testimonies on social networking sites with regard to the millions of people massing in Egypt’s public squares in support for democracy and constitutional legitimacy, stressing that participation of certain institutions, with the putschists, in desperate attempts to mute the truth, silence the voice of democracy and facilitate the task of the military censor is a most reprehensible crime.

Moreover, JFR denounces the shameful and disgraceful position taken by the Journalists’ Syndicate Board on this issue, stressing that the hypocritical double standard maintained by the Board during the first year of President Mohamed Morsi’s rule has been clearly confirmed under the rule of the coup commanders and collaborators, keeping quiet on horrendous crimes committed against the media and journalists, something which certainly undermined its trade union legitimacy and made it necessary to overthrow this Board in the first elections.

Columnist Hassan Elkabany, JFR’s General Coordinator, expressed deep appreciation for all the endeavors and actions led by the free, honorable journalists to reject the military coup, affirming that the coup will last but an hour, while democracy will long endure, and that all attempts to terrorize journalists and media professionals will not last long and will never succeed.