Warsaw: Three Al Jazeera journalists who served jail terms in Egypt were honoured yesterday for standing up for freedom of speech despite intimidation and incarceration.
This year’s Freedom of Speech Award from International Association of Press Clubs (IAPC) went to Australian Peter Greste, who accepted the honour also on behalf of Mohamed Fahmy and Mohamed Baher, at a ceremony in the Polish capital Warsaw.
Greste hailed Egypt’s recent release of his two Al Jazeera television colleagues along with scores of other detainees, but said Cairo needed to do more to guarantee fundamental freedoms to secure national stability.
“In releasing 100 prisoners, including some important activists, including Fahmy and Baher, (Egyptian) President (Abdel Fattah) Al Sisi made a very important step: An acknowledgement of the need to address some of the injustices that have happened over the years.
“They (authorities) need to make sure they keep going down that path for Egypt’s stability to be assured,” Greste said.
Rights watchdog Amnesty International has called for the release of other political detainees in jails, including well-known bloggers Alaa Abdel Fattah and Ahmed Douma.
After their arrest in December 2013, a Cairo court sentenced Greste and his two colleagues for fabricating “false” news in support of the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Baher and Fahmy were pardoned and released late last month. Fahmy, a Canadian journalist represented by high-profile lawyer Amal Clooney, announced yesterday that he was flying home.
Greste, who was deported to Australia by a presidential decree in February after spending 400 days in jail, said he has still not been formally pardoned and fears arrest when he travels outside Australia.
“I need to be very careful about where I travel, because that’s always a risk until it’s cleared,” Greste said.
Established in 2002, IAPC brings together press clubs from 30 countries around the globe and focuses primarily on media ethics and press freedom.
“Canadian Ambassador Troy (Lulashnyk) kindly escorted me to the gate at Cairo airport. A glorious end to our battle for freedom!” tweeted Fahmy.
An airport security official confirmed that Fahmy had boarded a flight bound for London.
It was unclear what Fahmy intended to do later, but he has said he and his wife want to return to Canada.
Fahmy, along with Baher and Greste who was deported at the beginning of the year, were convicted in an August and sentenced to three years.
The status of Greste, an Australian, is still unclear.
After his release, Fahmy said: “I’m feeling ecstatic knowing that I don’t have to worry about lawyers, police officers following me all over the place and knowing that I’m going to share my apartment tonight with my beloved wife.
“Now we’re free, me and Marwa are going to celebrate. We’re going to go back to Canada and travel and... get on with our lives.”
The case sparked global criticism of Al Sisi, who has said he wished the journalists had been deported from the outset.
The US and the United Nations had led calls for the journalists’ release.
Their arrest in December 2013 came at a time of heightened unrest and a deadly crackdown on the Brotherhood following Islamist president Mohamed Mursi’s overthrow by the military.
Agencies
