Minister of Information Anas El-Fiqqi
Cairo, Egypt
Email: feedback@sis.gov.eg

10 March 2006

Dear Minister,

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 of journalist Amira Malash.

According to reports, on 7 March a court in Giza sentenced Ms Malash, of the independent weekly al-Fajr, to one year in prison for libelling a judge in a report she wrote last year about a bribery investigation in Alexandria. It also ordered her to pay EGP1,000 (about 150 euros) as surety while she appeals the verdict.

President Hosni Mubarak promised two years ago to work to abolish imprisonment for publishing offences but the government has never asked parliament to amend the law. In February, a court upheld a one-year sentence against journalist Abdel Nasser al-Zouhairi, who was convicted of libelling a former housing minister but the speaker of the upper house of parliament, Safwat el-Sharif, persuaded the minister to drop the case and seek settlement of the dispute without imprisonment.

We respectfully remind you that the sentencing to jail of Ms Malash is a clear breach of her right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by numerous international conventions, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 of the Declaration states: ’Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers.’

We respectfully call on you to do everything possible to ensure that all charges against Ms Malash are immediately dropped. We urge you to take all necessary steps to decriminalise press offences and to ensure that in future your country fully respects international standards of freedom of expression.

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

cc : Mr Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations
Mr Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General, UNESCO

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.