Freedom of Media Program Semiannual News letter

Transcription

1

2 Freedom of Media Program Semiannual News letter A periodical newsletter on the state of media and press in Egypt Done by: Wesam Atta Monitoring and Documentation Unite Director Publisher: Association o Freedom of Thought and Expression info@afteegypt.org Cover Design: adamdott Internal Design: Amal Hamed

3 Methodology The report is based on monitoring by researchers of the AFTE media freedom program, what is published on online networks and news sites, in addition to the group of Journalists against torture. Researchers then verify the violations through direct contact with victims, their families, eyewitnesses or via posts by victims on their personal facebook pages, in the media or through news published by media and press institutions to which they are affiliated. Time scope of report: The report covers violations against journalists between 25 June - 28 December 2016

4 4 Geographical scope of report: Nationwide Criteria for inclusion of cases of violation of freedom of the press and the media in the report: a. Confirmed identity of the journalist: A press syndicate ID, a work permit from a press institution, a press archive in a press institution, a certificate by the press institution; AND b. Confirmation of press institution: a facebook page, a website or a hard copy version of the journal/newspaper in addition to valid contact information c. Confirmation that the journalist was doing his job at the time of the violation: work permit or authorization for a press mission, or a testimony by victim or eyewitnesses, or a certificate by responsible body at the press institution. Classification of perpetrators of violations 1- Government officials: including all public civil servants while in working hours excepting employees working at civil or military security bodies. 2- Security bodies: including sectors of the ministry of interior, ministry of defense and other state troops. 3- Private guards or security: including any private guards whether independent or appointed by companies. In case the violation by private security is committed by direct order of a government official the violation will be considered to be by government officials 4- Judicial bodies: including public prosecution or bench judges. 5- Civil bodies: including all citizens outside official government circles. 6- Press or media bodies: including all press and media channels, newspapers, websites, networks, channels, media companies, with the exception of Maspero. 7- Parliament: including parliamentary decisions or violations committed by its members.

5 5 Classification of victims affiliation: 1- Egyptian private channels, based in Egypt 2- Egyptian private publications, whether magazines or newspapers. 3- Egyptian state-owned publications, whether magazines or newspapers. 4- Egyptian parties publications, including all press publications owned by any party 5- Websites and news networks: including all websites and networks on the internet that publish press material, i.e. news or press material not related to special or private events. 6- Multiple: includes a combination of any of the above 7- Unspecified: Affiliation of victim not identified Terms used in the report 1- Press syndicate, referring to the syndicate or any of its representatives (head or members of its council) 2- Official news agency: Middle East News Agency (MENA) 3- Non-Egyptian channels, whose headquarters is outside Egypt 4- Foreign agencies and newspapers, which are issued from abroad. 5- Multiple channels: victims belong to more than one channel. Note: In case of multiple press activities for the same institution, we used the institution that is most organized and structured such as producing a printed newspaper or a website, in which case the activities of its journalists are included under printed. 6- Arrest: Restriction of freedom of a journalist, escorting him to a police station and documentation of a report. 7- Illegal detention: Restricting freedom of a journalist, taking him to a detention place and then his release without documentation of a report

6 6 8- Obstruction and arbitrariness: restricting freedom of journalist in doing his work for some time without detaining him. Definition of a violation It is a violation against a single journalist at a certain time and place. This is defined by four main variables (place of violation, time of violation, type of violation, the victim). For example, if three journalists are arrested at a certain incident, where one of them was beaten, a second verbally abused, this would be counted as five violations: three cases of arrest, one case of beating and one case of verbal abuse. Definition of an incident: This refers to all violations that are inflicted on one or more journalist at a certain time and place, to be distinguished by two main variables: place and time of violation. Notes: In the case of any type of collective violation (prevention of coverage) it would be considered a single violation since the violation targeted the profession as a unit and not a particular individual. This is also meant to avoid the problem of identifying the number of journalists afflicted and their identifies especially that those kind of violations are almost a daily occurrence. Also, otherwise we would be confronted with a statistical problem in view of the very large number that would result. Cases of obstruction and arbitrariness against journalists during their coverage of the protests against the Egyptian Saudi agreement concerning the island of Tiran and Sanafir have been excluded, since we could not confirm most of them.

7 7 Second half of 2016: Decrease of violations to the lowest levels since years. Violations against the press and media community have decreased during the previous 6 months parallel to a decrease in political activities and events. We recorded 134 case of violation ranging from arrest of journalists while on the job, prevention from coverage, illegal detention, assault by beating or casing injury and other violations, which have become one of the obstacles against journalism in Egypt over the past years. Violations decreased by a rate of 55.1% compared to the first half of 2016 where we recorded 303 violations. Violations against press and media community during 2016 During the first half of During the second half of Total 437 Violations also showed a 63% decrease for the same period during 2015 (362 cases)

8 Noteworthy during the last 6 months is an accusation by a female journalist in Rosa Alyoussef newspaper of sexual harassment by the chief editor, filing an official complaint no /2016 Kasr El Nil misdemeanor. Also, the press syndicate and its representatives continue to be subjected to violations, since Kasr El Nil court sentenced the head of the syndicate Yehia Kallash, secretary of the freedom committee, Khaled el Balshy and syndicate secretary Gamal Abdel Rehim to two years and a 10 thousand pounds bail for each. 8

9 9 Timeframe of violations October witnessed the highest number of violations (28) followed by July and November (26 each), September (25 cases), December and August (15 and 14 cases respectively)

10 10 Geographical scope of violations 73.9% of violations against journalists took place in Cairo, followed by Giza (16 cases) and Alexandria (5 cases).

11 11 Type of violation Prevention from coverage came at the top of the list of violations against journalists and media personnel (71 cases) followed by beatings or causing injury (19 cases), arrest and illegal detention (10 cases each), 7 cases of banning a program or an article or an issue of a newspaper, 6 judicial procedures, and 5 cases of confiscation of press equipment, their destruction or deletion of their memory.

12 12

13 13 Perpetrator of violations Security bodies committed the highest number of violations (56 cases), followed by judicial bodies (26), various civil groups (25), press or media institutions (9 cases), parliament (9 cases), government officials (7 cases) and private security (2 cases).

14 14 Profession of victim Collective violations were the most common against journalists during the last 6 months (57 cases), 44 cases against individual journalists, 20 cases against photojournalists, and 4 violations against newspapers.

15 15 Institutional affiliation of victim 68 violations were committed against journalists working in networks and news websites, followed by private Egyptian publications (19 cases), and finally state-owned Egyptian publications (8 cases).

16 16 Detained journalists No. Date of arrest Name of journalist 1 14/8/2013 Mahmoud Abdel Shakour Abu Zeid 2 25/8/2013 Samhi Mostafa Ahmed Abdelalim 3 25/8/2013 Mohamed Mohamed Mostafa Eladli 4 25/8/2013 Abdallah Ahmed Mohamed Elfakharany 5 25/1/2014 Ahmed Fuad Mohamed Elsayed Profession and institution Photographer, Demotex press agency Executive director, Rassd news network Correspondent and presenter, Amgad satellite channel Founding members, Rassd news network Correspondent, Karmouz website Legal status Sentence Case no. Pretrial detention, Criminal court, ongoing Pretrial detention, Criminal court, ongoing Pretrial detention, Criminal court, ongoing Pretrial detention, Criminal court, ongoing Pretrial detention, Criminal court, ongoing Not sentenced Not sentenced Not sentenced Not sentenced Not sentenced 15899/2013 administrative Madinet Nasr 1st 2210/2014 Agouza criminal case and 317/2014 high state security prosecution 2210/2014 Agouza criminal case and 317/2014 high state security prosecution 2210/2014 Agouza criminal case and 317/2014 high state security prosecution 1416 Montaza 1 st administrative case

17 /3/2015 Abdelrahman Abdelsalam Yaqout 7 3/7/2013 Mahmoud Mohamed Abdelnabi 8 29/11/2015 Ismail Elsayed Mohamed Omar Taufik 9 24/4/2015 Mohamed Abdelmoneim Imam Mohamed Photographer, Karmouz news website Correspondent, Rassd network Journalist Journalist, Tahia Masr newspaper Pretrial detention, Criminal court, ongoing Pretrial detention, Criminal court, ongoing Detention pending investigations Not sentenced Not sentenced Case not referred to court 8558/2015 Dekheila criminal cases, 1206/2014 West Alexandria 50666/2014 Montaza 1 st criminal case, 4214/2014 East Alexandria 569/2015 high state security case Sentenced 3 years 5197/2015 Dar El Salam criminal cases, 197/2015 interrogation 10 26/9/2016 Hamdi Mokhtar El Zaim 11 26/9/2016 Mohamed Hassan 12 26/9/2016 Osama Elbashbishi Elnabaa newspaper Elnabaa newspaper Elnabaa newspaper Detention pending investigations Detention pending investigations Detention pending investigations Case not referred to court Case not referred to court Case not referred to court 15060/2016 Kasr el Nil misdemeanor 15060/2016 Kasr el Nil misdemeanor 15060/2016 Kasr el Nil misdemeanor

18 /12/2016 Mahmoud Hussein Gomaa Journalist, Aljazeera channel Detention pending investigations Case not referred to court For more information on detained journalists please visit