Per
BBC, the Egyptian Mada Masr website announced today that one of their reporters
was arrested and held for questioning without a lawyer for nine hours by members
of the Egyptian military intelligence. The reporter is 37-year-old, Hossam
Bahgat, an investigative human rights journalist and activist who founded the
human rights organization, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, and
published an investigative piece on the August conviction of military personnel
for conspiring with the ‘banned Muslim Brotherhood” to commit a political
uprising, Baghat is currently waiting to hear from military prosecutors if he
will be officially charged with ‘publishing inaccurate and false information
that harms national interests.’
According
to Amnesty International, this is ‘yet another nail in the coffin’ of freedom
of speech in Egypt as authorities persist with a ‘ferocious onslaught against
independent journalism and civil society.’ Phillip Luther, the Middle East and
North Africa Programme Director, has called for Baghat’s immediate release,
asserting that all charges against the journalist should be dismissed. It is
believed that tens of thousands of Egyptian citizens have been arrested and imprisoned
since the empowered Egyptian army deseated President Mohammed Morsi back in
2013.
In
light of our upcoming human rights’ discussion in class tomorrow, this story
seemed especially relevant. Although I would be the first to say that this
would never happen in America, the article has reminded me of the Egyptian who
made the anti-Islam video that President Obama and Secretary of State Hilary
Clinton tried to blame for the Benghazi attack and killings. Whatever happened
to him? As I recall, he was quickly arrested after the Benghazi violence on
unrelated charges.
Amanda Zgonina
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34761624
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