Egyptian army was behind the jamming of its satellite signals, which the network used to broadcast to the Arab world. - On December 29, 2013, four journalists from Al Jazeera English, Baher Mohamed, Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy, and Mohamed Faw- zy were arrested. Fawzy was released shortly afterwards and left Egypt, while the rest spent more than a year in prison. During their imprison- ment, the network launched a global campaign to protest against viola- tions of press freedom using the hashtag (#JournalismIsNotaCrime). In June 2014, an Egyptian court sentenced Fawzy, Greste, Fahmy, and five others to prison terms ranging from seven to ten years. On February 1, 2015, Greste was released, and days later, Mohamed Fahmy was also released. - In October 2014, programme presenter Ahmed Mansour, was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in absentia, and in June 2016, for- mer Editor-In-Chief, Ibrahim Hilal, was sentenced to death in absentia, while an arrest warrant was issued for Ayman Gaballah, Managing Di- rector of Al Jazeera Mubasher. - In December 2016, one month after Al Jazeera broadcast a doc- umentary about forced conscription in Egypt, the authorities arrested journalist Mahmoud Hussein, who was visiting his family. Hussein spent more than four years in prison before being released in February 2021 without charges. The post-Arab Spring instability and the role played by those who opposed the revolution in particular, have turned peoples’ hopes of building democratic systems into civil wars and bloody conflicts in Libya, Syria, and Yemen. This environment has only increased the challenges facing the media, and made their job of reporting the news impartially and professionally more difficult and more dangerous. 6. Facing the Onslaught with “The Declaration on the Protection of Journalists” The “International Declaration on the Protection of Journalists” (Doha Declaration), was launched in Qatar, at the initiative of the Al Jazeera Centre for Public Liberties and Human Rights and the Interna- tional Press Institute, on March 20, 2016. It included the participation of the International Institute for the Safety of News Reporters in Armed
297
EN2.indd 297
20/02/2022 4:14 PM
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter