Heroes of the Arab Press

Despite the courage of many Arab journalists and writers, developments in the past year suggest that trends aren't very encouraging for press freedom in the Middle East. That's a very dispiriting observation to make, given how vital free speech is to the development of democracy in the Arab world. In the era of satellite television and the internet, the space for freedom has indeed expanded in the past decade. Unfortunately, enemies of freedom are intent on harassing, jailing and even killing journalists and writers, not only to silence them but as a warning to others to expect a life of uncertainty if you dare speak your mind. Those who live with the harassment and the prospect of being jailed or killed are largely unsung heroes.
For more details, check out the websites of two groups dedicated to press freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders. The latest case and one that has far-reaching implications is Thursday's sentencing of Egyptian blogger Karim Amer to four years in prison on charges of insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak. Karim Amer, whose real name is Abdel Karim Suleiman, had the temerity to take on two of Egypt's most powerful institutions--the presidency and the Al Azhar university of Islamic scholarship. Egyptian and indeed Arab bloggers elsewhere have been harassed before, but Karim Amer is the first Egyptian to be sentenced to a jail term. The verdict sends a chilling warning that Egyptian authorities will not tolerate the use of the internet as a means of issuing criticism that Egypt's traditional media outlets know they must refrain from making.
Last month, Egyptian security agents detained Howayda Taha Matwali, a producer for Qatar-based Al Jazeera, and confiscated footage depicting re-enactments of prison torture in Egypt. She was charged with fraud and harming Egypt's interests and faces a trial in a state security court next week. The cases of the blogger and the Jazeera producer make for an inauspicious state for Mubarak's controversial efforts to amend Egypt's constitution this year to ensure an orderly presidential succession when he retires at the end of his current term. One hopes that Mubarak will include on his agenda a vow he made three years ago to eliminate prison sentences in judicial cases against journalists.
Egypt is hardly alone. Syrian authorities have put noted Syrian journalist and commentator Michel Kilo in detention for the past nine months for apparently criticizing the Syrian regime's activities in neighboring Lebanon. He faces a possible life sentence if convicted of the charges, which include defaming President Bashar Assad. The trial is now scheduled to start March 5, but has already been postponed three times.
In Sudan, Adil Sid Ahmed and Ahmed al Sharif of al Watan newspaper face a sedition trial after being arrested last month for publishing an interview with militants who threatened foreigners living in the country. In Tunisia a few weeks ago, authorities arrested Tahar Ben Hassine, director of an independent satellite channel broadcasting to Tunisia from Italian soil, immediately after he left the Tunis home of a prominent political dissident. Hassine was freed the next day, but the arrest is part of a pattern of harassment against his channel and other outspoken media outlets.
As I've blogged earlier, Moroccan authorities appears to have come up with a new way of silencing critical journalists. Courts strongly under the influence of the palace convicted Le Journal publisher Aboubakr Jamai in a libel case and awarded unprecedented, destructive damages to the tune of $350,000. Last month, Jamai resigned from the paper he founded and made into Morocco's most outspoken media outlet in order to prevent the state from seizing its assets and effectively closing it.
It's a little over a year now that Gebran Tueni, the chief of the influential Beirut newspaper An Nahar and one of the most courageous Arab journalists, was assassinated as he drove to work one morning. Tueni had been in the forefront of Lebanese demands for Syrian troops to withdraw and support for a U.N. investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.
Unfortunately, there is more. I haven't even mentioned Iraq, where CPJ says 130 journalists and support staff have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Say a prayer for Arab journalists.

--By Scott MacLeod/Cairo