His Excellency Hosni Mubarak
President of Egypt

3 July 2006

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 102 countries, to express our serious concern at the sentencing to jail for one year of two journalists for publishing a report that was critical of you, your family and top officials.

According to reports, on 26 June a court in Al-Warrak, north of Giza, sentenced Ibrahim Eissa, editor of the independent weekly Al-Dustour, and Sahar Zaki, a reporter for the paper, to a year in prison for insulting you. The journalists, who were not present for the verdict, are free on bail of 10,000 Egyptian pounds pending appeal.

The case against Mr Eissa and Mr Zaki stems from a 5 April 2005 article that reported efforts by an Egyptian lawyer to take you and your family to court on allegations of corruption, including the alleged misuse of foreign aid. The lawyer, Said Abdullah, was also sentenced on 26 June to a year in jail.

We respectfully remind you that the criminal law is a wholly inappropriate means of dealing with critical reporting and that jailing Mr Eissa and Mr Zaki for the offence of insult contravenes a number of international agreements. We believe that such matters should be considered as an issue of possible libel by civil courts and that an award of reasonable damages is adequate and appropriate relief in all proven cases of libel.

We respectfully remind you that two years ago you pledged to eliminate prison penalties for publishing offences. The promise remains unfulfilled and Egyptian journalists continue to be brought before criminal courts and sentenced to jail because of their reporting. At least two other journalists have reportedly been sentenced to jail on defamation charges so far this year.

We call on you to do everything in your power to ensure that the prosecution of Mr Eissa and Mr Zaki is immediately halted and that all criminal charges against them are dropped. We urge you to take all necessary steps to ensure that defamation and insult laws are decriminalised.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin O’Reilly
President
World Association of Newspapers

George Brock
President
World Editors Forum

WAN is the global organization for the newspaper industry, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The organization groups 18,000 newspapers in 102 countries, 11 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups. WAN is non-governmental and non-profit.