{"id":1525,"date":"2014-06-23T23:42:09","date_gmt":"2014-06-23T23:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/ng\/?p=1525"},"modified":"2014-06-23T23:42:09","modified_gmt":"2014-06-23T23:42:09","slug":"journalism-is-not-a-crime-egypt-govt-sentence-3-journalists-to-jailfor-daring-to-report-news-defending-the-peoples-right-to-know-not-a-shred-of-evidence-agains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/journalism-is-not-a-crime-egypt-govt-sentence-3-journalists-to-jailfor-daring-to-report-news-defending-the-peoples-right-to-know-not-a-shred-of-evidence-agains\/","title":{"rendered":"JOURNALISM IS NOT A CRIME! Egypt Govt Sentence 3 Journalists to Jail\u2026For Daring to Report News, defending the people\u2019s right to know *\u2018Not a shred of evidence\u2019 against journalists-INVESTIGATION * \u201cWe will continue with resolve until Peter, Baher and Mohammed are free\u201d-Al-Jazeera Managing Director, Al Anstey"},"content":{"rendered":"

JOURNALISM<\/b>\u00a0IS NOT A CRIME!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Egypt Govt Sentence 3 Journalists to Jail<\/strong>\u2026For Daring to Report News, defending the people\u2019s right to know<\/strong><\/p>\n

*\u2018Not a shred of evidence\u2019 against journalists-INVESTIGATION<\/strong><\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u201cWe will continue with resolve until Peter, Baher and Mohammed are free\u201d-Al-Jazeera Managing Director, Al Anstey<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

BY GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU\/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF,<\/em> NEW YORK<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"detained-aj-staff<\/a>IT is so sad that draconian rule has been introduced by the government of Egypt in a bid to \u2018silence\u2019 the press from not rightly informing, educating and entertaining the generality of the people from knowing their rights. Rather, foreign journalists in that country are most times, threatened, arrested over \u2018trump-up\u2019 charges and ruled-against in a Kangaroo court.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This dictatorship latest victims are Peter, Mohamed and Baher, three brilliant journalists whose arrest and detention without trial in a dungeon Egyptian Cell have created a lot of noise in the global media on how these journalists were being tortured.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Following recent verdict in Cairo, Al Jazeera English managing director Al Anstey said: \u201cToday three colleagues and friends were sentenced, and will continue behind bars for doing a brilliant job of being great journalists.\u00a0 ‘Guilty’ of covering stories with great skill and integrity, ‘Guilty’ of defending people\u2019s right to know what is going on in their world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Al said: \u201cPeter, Mohamed, and Baher and six of our other colleagues were sentenced despite the fact that not a shred of evidence was found to support the extraordinary and false charges against them.\u00a0 At no point during the long, drawn-out ‘trial’ did the absurd allegations stand up to scrutiny.\u00a0 There were many moments during the hearings where in any other court of law, the trial would be thrown out.\u00a0 There were numerous irregularities in addition to the lack of evidence to stand up the ill-conceived allegations.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no justification whatsoever in the detention of our three colleagues for even one minute.\u00a0 To have detained them for 177 days is an outrage.\u00a0 To have sentenced them defies logic, sense, and any semblance of justice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe support shown for Mohamed, Peter, and Baher has been loud, unified, and determined, and has come from every corner of the world.\u00a0 The call for their freedom has come from journalists, people right around the globe, as well as leaders worldwide.\u00a0 This great solidarity is a stand for basic freedoms – the freedom of speech, for the right for people to be informed, and for the right for journalists around the world to be able to do their job- and, of course, a demand to free our colleagues.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is only one sensible outcome now for the verdict to be overturned, and justice to be recognized by Egypt.\u00a0 We must keep our voice loud to call for an end to their detention.\u00a0 Alongside us is a worldwide solidarity, a global call for their release, and a demand for basic freedoms to be respected.\u00a0 The authorities in Egypt need to take responsibility for their actions, and be held to account by the global community.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue with resolve and determination until Baher, Peter, and Mohamed are free and safely reunited with their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JOURNALISM\u00a0IS NOT A CRIME! Egypt Govt Sentence 3 Journalists to Jail\u2026For Daring to Report News, defending the people\u2019s right to know *\u2018Not a shred of evidence\u2019 against journalists-INVESTIGATION *\u00a0\u201cWe will continue with resolve until Peter, Baher and Mohammed are free\u201d-Al-Jazeera Managing Director, Al Anstey \u00a0 BY GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU\/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, NEW YORK   IT is so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}