Hossam el-Hamalawy
Journalists will hold a sit-in in front of the Public Prosecutor’s office in downtown today, Saturday noon, to protest the assault against Ad-Dostour journalist Ahmad Badr, who was beaten up by the police force securing the US embassy’s 4th of July celebrations in Muhammad Ali’s Palace in Shobra.
The police operation to “secure” the area for the embassy’s party caused “traffic crisis” as Al-Masry Al-Youm reports.
A group of journalists from the independent daily Ad-Dostour staged a sit-in Saturday at the Press Syndicate, protesting the refusal of the Press Syndicate Council to accept their membership applications during the review scheduled this Monday, citing bureaucratic reasons.
The journalists left the syndicate around 1am, and are expected to return again today, joined by their colleagues from Ad-Dostour (who are threatening to go on strike) and other publications in solidarity.
Mubarak’s regime cracks down again on those who speak out against torture:
An al Jazeera journalist has been sentenced to six months in prison in absentia by an Egyptian court after producing a film highlighting police torture.
The state security criminal court found Howayda Taha guilty of “harming Egypt’s national interest” and ordered her on Wednesday to pay a fine of 30,000 Egyptian pounds ($5,200).
She had been accused of planning to broadcast fabricated images.
Taha, who was making a documentary on torture in Egyptian police stations, described the decision as “an unjust, vindictive ruling by the government’s judiciary”.
She can appeal against the verdict.
In January, she was briefly arrested and her 50 videotapes confiscated at the Cairo airport.
Taha, an Egyptian citizen, is currently in Qatar, where al Jazeera’s headquarters are situated.