Friday, October 15, 2010

World's newspapers condemn attacks on Egypt's independent media


The Guardian

"The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the World Editors Forum have written to the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, to express concern over recent attacks on independent media.

It refers specifically to the dismissal of Ibrahim Eissa, editor-in-chief and founder of the private daily Al-Dustour, 10 days ago....

Alaa al-Aswani and Hamdi Qandil, columnists at the private daily Al-Shuruq, stopped writing their columns last month after the newspaper's management warned them about external pressure to tone down their content.

Television programme Al-Qahira Al-Yawm, presented by
journalist Amr Adeeb, was also suspended last month for "political reasons".

The letter, which reminds Mubarak of the press freedom principles enshrined in the 2007 "Declaration of Table Mountain", concludes:

"We respectfully call on you to take all necessary steps to halt the campaign of intimidation and censorship of independent media so that the press is able to report free from government pressure.

We ask you to ensure that in future your country fully respects international standards of press freedom.""

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