Human Rights organizations praise pardon for Egyptian editor

Oct 7, 2008, 16:58 GMT

Cairo - The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights praised Tuesday the pardon issued by Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak, for outspoken Egyptian editor Ibrahim Eissa who was sentenced last month to two months imprisonment for reporting on the president's health.

The organization described the pardon as 'a message to the Egyptian government and the Legislative Council and a reminder of the president's promise to ban prison sentences in freedom of expression and publishing crimes.'

The decree, issued on Monday, was to 'confirm (the president's) solicitude for freedom of opinion and expression ... and to ensure that there would be no feud between him as president and any Egyptian citizen,' according to the state news agency MENA.

An appeals court in Cairo sentenced Eissa, the editor of the Egyptian opposition daily al-Dustour, on September 29. The court found the editor guilty of publishing false news in 2007 about Mubarak's health 'in a way that damaged the national economy by encouraging capital flight.'

'This decision puts an end to an iniquitous judicial procedure that lasted more than a year and unsurprisingly concluded with Eissa getting a jail sentence,' France-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said in a statement on Tuesday.

'We hail the president's gesture but it is not an adequate response to all the many problems that the privately-owned press face in Egypt. Mubarak cannot continue avoiding the need for legislative reform to decriminalize press offences,' the media watchdog said.

Also on Tuesday, the Federation of Arab Journalists issued a statement describing the pardon as a 'victory for the freedom of expression in Egypt and opens a new chapter in the relationship between the press and power that is based on mutual respect.'

According to the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, there are currently 47 cases against journalists in Egypt.