My friend, you ask me to talk about freedom of expression in Egypt and what it means to me?
Before I begin to even talk to you about freedom of expression in Egypt – more specifically post-coup – allow me to draw your attention to a certain point: there is a difference between freedom of expression and the freedom to transmit news.
For true freedom of expression to exist it must be preceded largely by knowledge of facts and occurrences about the world around us on which we later build later opinions that we can then express in various ways. On that basis, the freedom to transmit news precedes freedom of expression; it is a necessary condition for freedom of expression to even exist in the first place.In Egypt, you have a country that neither respects journalists nor allows them to portray the reality on the ground to the nation's citizens. In Egypt, the search for freedom of expression is akin to being a filmmaker who owns no camera or film: impossible to enact.
For a year and a half I have been left in an underground cell charged with the crime of "journalism"; charged with the dissemination of news – and, believe it or not, for admitting to belong to a newspaper! And yet, despite this, as a journalist in my country, I know I am lucky. Others have been killed for carrying out their work with no one asking about them or bringing their killers to justice. No one has held their killers accountable for the charges of murder, of restricting freedom, of targeting journalists – the world has forgotten or neglected them, my friend.
For the past year and a half I have been imprisoned with many journalists, Egyptian and foreign alike, from various press organisations. I was with Abdullah Al-Shamy, the Al Jazeera journalist who was arrested whilst doing his work the day of the dispersal of Rabaa – the same day that Habiba Mohamed, a member of Abdullah's press team, was killed doing his job. Many people are unaware that the actual numbers of detainees from Rassd News has exceeded 40 journalists, and that the organisation withholds their names for fear of endangering them. For in Egypt it is better for a journalist upon being arrested covering such events to be charged as a protester than to be charged as a journalist.
How naïve I was! I thought the world would stand against the coup government in its targeting of journalists and their restrictions. What happened instead was a mixture of collaboration and neglect, with some countries even handing their journalists over to the Egyptian authorities – such as what happened with the director of Ahrar25, Musad Albarbary, who was abducted by Lebanese authorities and handed over to their Egyptian counterparts to be charged for managing a news channel. Such incidents will only repeat themselves with others –
for haven't I told you; the world does not care. Perhaps it's because the detained journalist is Egyptian?Forgive me, my friend, for prolonging my introduction and not answering your question. Let me tell you what freedom of expression means to me after a year and a half of detention.
Freedom of expression, now, is for me to be free to write words on the walls of my cell; to shout out in my loudest voice how I feel to the fellow prisoner behind my cell door; to have the freedom to talk to the military judge overseeing my case; the freedom to choose between silence or speech that might land me in isolation. It's the ability to hold a discussion with 20 other journalists about what occurred when we were in the court's cage – the soundproof glass box that has been our punishment for daring to work as journalists.
Freedom of expression, my dear friend, is to talk about the killers of Charlie Hebdo
and to ignore the killings of Arab journalists; condemning the killers of French journalists
while being blind to the fate of others.I hear the words "freedom of expression" and the name Ahmad Assim comes to mind. As does Ahmad Abdeljawad; Habiba Ahmad; Mosab Alshamy; Mayada Ashraf – they all come to mind, the names of journalists killed for their work. The Mariott Cell case also comes to mind.
As does the Rabaa Operations Room case; the Rassd leaks; Mikamleen and the more than 100 Egyptian journalists left to rot in a prison cell because of the charge of journalism. These are the limits of freedom of expression in my country now.Names of detained journalists in Egypt to date:
Magdy Ahmad Hussein, Alshab aljadeed
Mohsin Rady, Culture and Media in the People's Assembly
Ibrahim Aldawry, Palestinian Centre for Studies
Ahmad Ez Aldeen, Alshaab Newspaper
Hany Salah Aldeen, Alyoum Alsabeh
Hassan Alqabany, Alkarama
Musad Albarbary, Ahrar 25
Amr Alkhafeef, Radio broadcasting in Maspero
Imad Abu Zeid, Alahram
Ahmad Almenshawy, Gazette
Said Abou Hajj, photojournalist, Sinai media
Ahmad Sabeh, Aqsa channel
Samihy Mustafa, Rassd Network
Ali Abdulal, Islamiyon
Abdullah Alfakharany, Rassd Network
Ayman Saqr, Mesryoon
Mohamed Ali Hassan, Nahar Newspaper and Egypt Now Channel
Mohamad Salah, Alshab aljadeed
Ibrahim Sulaiman, Fifth Channel
Omar Abdelmaqsood, Masr Alarabiya
Khaled Hamza, Ikhwanweb
Mahmoud Abu Zeid (Shawkan), freelance photojournalist, Demotix
Ramy Gan, freelance
Mohamed Alyamany, Freedom and Justice paper
Abdelrahman Shahin, Freedom and Justice paper
Husam Isa, Freedom and Justice paper
Muhammad Madany, Masr25
Baher Mohamed, Aljazeera
Mohamed Fahmy, Aljazeera
Nora Rashed, Gomhoriya
Khaled Hamdy, Masr25
Hassan Khudry, Masr25
Khaled Abdelaziz, Masr25
Jamal Alalam, Masr25
Osama Ezz Aldeen, photojournalist, Masr25
Mohamed Hegazy, Masr25
Mohamed Aladly, Amgad
Hassan Ibrahim Albana, freelance photojournalist
Mahmoud Gad, freelance photojournalist
Ahmad Abu Zeid Altantawy, Freedom and Justice paper
Abdelrahman Said Mustafa, Nabd Alikhbariya
Abdelrahman Morsi, Aqsa channel
Mahmoud Abdelnaby Awad, Rassd Network
Ibrahim Abdelnaby Awad, Rassd Network
Khaled Abdelraouf Sahloub, freelance
Ahmad Gamal Zeyada, Yaqeen
Said Mousa, Amgad
Omran Ashour Ahmad, freelance
Ahmad Khamees, freelance
Mohamed Reda, freelance
Ahmad Ali Alnagar, freelance
Mohamed Sulaiman, freelance
Khaled Junaidy, freelance
Salem Rehab, freelance
Imad Mohamed, freelance
Kareem Mustafa Alsaid, Shabab Channel
Omar Ahmad, freelance
Mohamed Ezzat, IkhwanOnline
Abdullah Shousha, Amgad
Bakry Abdelal, Alraya
Ashraf Mahmoud Khalifa, Freedom and Justice paper
Mohamed Hamdy, freelance
Ahmad Abdelhameed awad, freelance
Abdelrahman Labib Handiya, freelance
Ahmad Lashin, Masr25
Ahmad Fouad Alsaid, Kormoz
Kareem Shalby, Almasdr
Suhaib Mohamed, freelance
Bebshawy Armeia, Altareq Channel
Wael Alhudeiny, freelance
Sameh Albalah, Alsharq al-Awsat
Mohamed Mamoon, Ahrar25
Ibrahim Talha, freelance
Mahmoud Gamal Othman, freelance
Mohiy Qasam Abdeljawad, freelance
Mohamad Mustafa Abdelnaser, freelance
Ahmad Moharam Abdelsalam, freelance
Abdelrahman Mohamed Ahmad, freelance
Bilal Kamal Abdelal, freelance
Mohamed Abdelnaby Abda, freelance
Mohamad Ragab, freelance
Mustafa Ban, freelance
Mustafa Madih Helmy, freelance
Sameh Mohamed Bakry, freelance
Ahmad Moharam, freelance
Abdullah Gamal Meftah, freelance
Mohamed Mamon Abou Shousha, freelance
Ammar Samir Abdelghany, freelance
Ahmad Khamees Khedr, freelance
Bilal Abdullah Ahmad, freelance
Abdelrahman Hassan Abdelhaffez, freelance
Ahmad Khamees Abdelqawy, freelance
Kareem Abdullah, freelance
Huthaifa Mohamed, freelance
Anas Mohamed Alqady, freelance
Mohamed Ahmad Shehata, freelance
Osama Hisham Mohamed, freelance
Mohammed Husam Alkafrawy, freelance
Omar Mohammed Alsawy, freelance
Ahmad Ali Alnagar, freelance
Adel Alhaddad, freelance photojournalist
writes He is a Egyptian journalist and the founder of Rassd News Network who is currently imprisoned in Egypt..
I certainly agree with most of what he says if not all .. Off course there are limits in Egypt what you can say and what you can not say dear Abdullah. BUT TO THE WORLD DOESN'T CARE about journalists of Egypt is not right., True if every country had same culture of repression and culture of caliph rulers and culture of Islamic politics then every one around the globe will be suffering as Egyptians are suffering under this regime..
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