Cairo - The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights praised
Tuesday the pardon issued by Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak, for
outspoken Egyptian editor Ibrahim Eissa who was sentenced last month
to two months imprisonment for reporting on the president's health.
The organization described the pardon as 'a message to the
Egyptian government and the Legislative Council and a reminder of the
president's promise to ban prison sentences in freedom of expression
and publishing crimes.'
The decree, issued on Monday, was to 'confirm (the president's)
solicitude for freedom of opinion and expression ... and to ensure
that there would be no feud between him as president and any Egyptian
citizen,' according to the state news agency MENA.
An appeals court in Cairo sentenced Eissa, the editor of the
Egyptian opposition daily al-Dustour, on September 29. The court
found the editor guilty of publishing false news in 2007 about
Mubarak's health 'in a way that damaged the national economy by
encouraging capital flight.'
'This decision puts an end to an iniquitous judicial procedure
that lasted more than a year and unsurprisingly concluded with Eissa
getting a jail sentence,' France-based media watchdog Reporters
Without Borders said in a statement on Tuesday.
'We hail the president's gesture but it is not an adequate
response to all the many problems that the privately-owned press face
in Egypt. Mubarak cannot continue avoiding the need for legislative
reform to decriminalize press offences,' the media watchdog said.
Also on Tuesday, the Federation of Arab Journalists issued a
statement describing the pardon as a 'victory for the freedom of
expression in Egypt and opens a new chapter in the relationship
between the press and power that is based on mutual respect.'
According to the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, there are
currently 47 cases against journalists in Egypt.
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