Egypt deports critical tv-presenter the day she ends contract with new rightist owner of the station

Popular Lebanese TV host Liliane Daoud was arrested from her home in Cairo on Monday night, taken to an undisclosed location and then put aboard an EgyptAir flight to Beirut, said Daoud’s lawyer Zyad Elelaimy. Eight members of the security forces stormed her home earlier that evening. It was the same day she ended her contract with ONtv.
The security forces refused to allow Daoud to make a phone call or to take her phone with her when they apprehended her, Elelaimy said. Her Egyptian ex-husband, Khaled El-Berry, was coincidentally present at her home during the arrest while picking up their ten-year-old daughter for dinner. "They gave [Daoud] exactly five minutes. They refused to allow her to take anything with her except her wallet. They also refused to let her call a lawyer or the [Lebanese] embassy," El-Berry wrote on his Facebook account.

Israel closes 2nd radio station in Hebron

Israeli forces stormed the office of Idha'at Al-Khalil (Radio Hebron) Saturday morning, confiscated equipment and damaged the office. Intelligence officers then delivered a military warrant ordering the station to close for six months due “incitement against Israel,” director of Radio Hebron, Amjad Shawar, told Ma’an.
It was the the second news outlet to be shut by Israel this month in this occupied West Bank city. The Israeli army confirmed that military forces, in operation with Israel’s internal security service, Shin Bet, and civil administration, confiscated broadcasting equipment from the station.“The al-Khalil radio station has repeatedly broadcasted content which promotes and encourages terror and acts of violence against Israeli civilians and security forces,” the army said in a statement.

Cairo court sentences Al-Jazeera journalists to three years

Mohammed Fahmy (l) and Baher Mohamed in court (Photo Reuters, April 2015).

A Cairo court has sentenced three Al Jazeera journalists to three years in jail after finding them guilty of "aiding a terrorist organisation".Egyptian Baher Mohamed, Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Australian Peter Greste were all handed three year jail sentences when the court delivered the verdict on Saturday, sparking worldwide outrage. Mohamed was sentenced to an additional six months for possession of a spent bullet casing.
The journalists had been initially found guilty in June 2014 of aiding a "terrorist organisation", a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, which was outlawed in Egypt after the army overthrew President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Judge Hassan Farid, in his ruling on Saturday, said he sentenced the men to prison at least partly because they had not registered with the country's journalist "syndicate".He also said the men brought in equipment without security officials' approval, had broadcast "false news" on Al Jazeera and used a hotel as a broadcasting point without permission.

Egypt adopts law that renders independent reporting effectively impossible

President Siss poses with members of the security forces (Photo Al-Ahram)

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has approved an anti-terrorism law that sets up special courts and provides protections to its enforcers.
The controversial law, published in the government's official gazette on Sunday, sets a minimum fine of 200,000 pounds (about $25,000) and a maximum of 500,000 pounds for anyone who strays from government statements in publishing or spreading "false" reports on attacks or security operations against armed fighters.
Critics say the steep fines may shut down smaller newspapers, and deter larger ones from independently reporting on attacks and operations against armed fighters.

It also shields those applying it, such as the military and police, from legal ramifications for the proportionate use of force "in performing their duties." The law also seeks prison terms for those found guilty of "inciting, or prepared to incite, directly or indirectly, a terrorist act".
Dalia Fahmy, an assistant professor at Long Island University and a member of the Egyptian Rule of Law Association, told Al Jazeera that any media "that defies the national narrative, will be fined. The law here is a system that is not protecting the citizenry, but rather protecting the state ... it is becoming indicative of the consolidation of power in the hands of the executive," Fahmy said from New York.

Egypt tells the foreign press how to behave and launches watchdog

The government of Egypt has launched a monitoring office run by its State Information Service (SIS) to verify information included in foreign media reports about the country. According to the Huffington Post, the Fact Check Egypt office will seek to verify foreign reports and sources they rely on. It said the office’s staff was trained by the US "media ethics" news site iMediaEthics and works in tandem with the Egyptian government's SIS. The move follows days after foreign correspondents received a ''style guide'' on how to write about islamist insurgents and the Muslim Brotherhood. The guide proscribed that Islamists and Muslim Brothers cannot be called names that evoke reminiscences of the Islam, but can only be alled terrorists, rebels, bandits and insurgents.

 The US online newspaper states that many reporters who covered the terrorist attacks in North Sinai earlier this month had been contacted by FactCheckEgypt via e-mail in order for them to adapt their reports to the government’s statements, setting a deadline for the request to be met.

 The fierce wave of attacks against army forces in the restive peninsula have been covered with reports that differ on the number of troop deaths. While foreign reports put the death toll for army personnel at between 30 and 60, the army spokesperson counted only 17 deaths.

 The conflicting reports prompted Egypt, in its pending anti-terrorism bill, to stipulate a jail term of at least two years for journalists who report terrorism-related information that is at odds with the government’s statements.

Press syndicate: worst climate for journalism in Egypt's history

The Egyptian Committee to Protect Journalists said on Thursday that at least 18 Egyptian journalists are in jail for reasons related to their reporting. The CJP based this on a prison census it conducted on 1 June. It is the highest number of detained journalistsin Egypt since the CPJ began recording data on imprisoned journalists in 1990.
"The threat of imprisonment in Egypt is part of an atmosphere in which authorities pressure media outlets to censor critical voices and issue gag orders on sensitive topics," the CPJ said in a report published on Thursday.
Khaled al-Balshy, the head of the freedoms committee of Egypt's press syndicate, said the number of journalists imprisoned was higher, putting it at more than 30. "We are in the worst climate for journalism in Egypt's history," he told Reuters.
CPJ said most of the journalists imprisoned are accused by the government of belonging to or being affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, which Cairo designates as a terrorist group. Authorities say the Brotherhood is a threat to national security.
A government source told Reuters that "the numbers are not accurate and the report is not objective." The source said all imprisoned journalists were facing criminal charges and were not imprisoned for political or free speech reasons.

Bassem Youssef's show ''Il-Bernamig'' will not return

Egypt's popular satire show Il-Birnamig hosted by Bassem Youssef will not resume its broadcasts. Youssef made this known in a press conference on Monday.
According to Youssef, the desicion comes after he and his crew realised that it's better to end the show than "offending it". With that he meant that he did not want to compromise it. Like an Egyptian blogger (The Big Pharao) said: ''He could have kissed ass. He could've toned down his show. He could've done what many show hosts do. I am glad he didn't. Respect.''
Another comment, by Michael Hanna, was: ''Egypt keeps sinking.''  And yet another (blogger Zeinobia): "They are afraid that the joker will make fun of the naked emperor.''
Youssef said at the press conference that he and the crew had decided not to accept offers to air the program from outside Egypt.

Saudi blogger gets ten years, 1.000 lashes and fine of $ 266.000

Badawi

A Saudi court has imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi for 10 years for "insulting Islam" and setting up a liberal web forum, local media report.

He was also sentenced to 1,000 lashes and ordered to pay a fine of 1 million riyals ($266,000). A Saudi newspaper close to the government reported that the verdict was handed out during an appeal against an earlier, somewhat less severe sentence of seven years and three months in jail and 600 lashes.Last year he was cleared of apostasy, which could have carried a death sentence.

Turkey deports journalist over tweets

Mahir Zeynalov and wife. (Photo Today's Zaman)

A document released by the Interior Ministry on Tuesday proves that the decision to deport Mahir Zeynalov, a Today's Zaman journalist and blogger, was made over tweets Zeynalov posted. This contradicts another document issued by the ministry on Friday which says the journalist was ordered to leave as the result of the expiration of his residence permit.

The Interior Ministry document Today's Zaman obtained was dated Feb. 4 and states that the Prime Ministry's Coordination Center (BİMER) demanded the deportation or exclusion of Azerbaijani national Mahir Zeynalov for his “statements that are contrary to fact” and “against the state and government.”
The Interior Ministry found it appropriate to deport Zeynalov over his tweets, sent from the @MahirZeynalov_ account and targeting high-level state officials, the document states. Zeynalov was also included in the category of ‘'Foreign nationals whose entry into our country [Turkey] has been barred.”

Egypt arrests four journalists of Al-Jazeera

Correspondent Peter Creste

Al Jazeera said Egyptian security forces arrested four of its journalists after the interior ministry accused the Qatar-based television channel of broadcasting illegally from a hotel suite together with a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Al Jazeera's offices in Cairo have been closed since July 3 when they were raided by security forces hours after the army ousted the Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi from the presidency.
"State security received information that a member of the (Brotherhood) used two suites in a Cairo hotel to hold meetings with other members of the organization and turned the suites into a press center," the Egyptian Interior Ministry said. "(They) made live broadcasts of news that harms homeland security, spreading rumors and false news to Qatar's Al Jazeera channel without permits."
A member of the Brotherhood and an Australian journalist who works for Al Jazeera were arrested and equipment was seized, including broadcast transmitters, the Interior Ministry said. Al Jazeera said the four working for its English news channel who had been arrested were correspondent Peter Greste, producers Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed as well as cameraman Mohamed Fawzy.

Al-Jazeera takes down Israel-critical article by Joseph Massad

Al Jazeera-English has taken the unusual step of taking an article from its site shortly after its appearance. In it Joseph Massad describes the parallels between zionism and anti-semitism and the cooperation that (occasionally?) took place bewteen zionists and nazis. The article surely was controversial and - as so often when something critical is said about zionism or Israel - it was called ´antisemitic´ and worse by the pro-Israeli ´hasbara-claque´. Luckily it was copied and pasted by the site Jews Without Frontiers, from which is took the following paragraphs. Massad, who often ruffles feathers here and there, teaches Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University in New York.

Joseph Massad

 

 

The last of the Semites

Jewish opponents of Zionism understood the movement since its early age as one that shared the precepts of anti-Semitism in its diagnosis of what gentile Europeans called the "Jewish Question". What galled anti-Zionist Jews the most, however, was that Zionism also shared the "solution" to the Jewish Question that anti-Semites had always advocated, namely the expulsion of Jews from Europe.

It was the Protestant Reformation with its revival of the Hebrew Bible that would link the modern Jews of Europe to the ancient Hebrews of Palestine, a link that the philologists of the 18th century would solidify through their discovery of the family of "Semitic" languages, including Hebrew and Arabic. Whereas Millenarian Protestants insisted that contemporary Jews, as descendants of the ancient Hebrews, must leave Europe to Palestine to expedite the second coming of Christ, philological discoveries led to the labelling of contemporary Jews as "Semites". The leap that the biological sciences of race and heredity would make in the 19th century of considering contemporary European Jews racial descendants of the ancient Hebrews would, as a result, not be a giant one. 

Basing themselves on the connections made by anti-Jewish Protestant Millenarians, secular European figures saw the political potential of "restoring" Jews to Palestine abounded in the 19th century. Less interested in expediting the second coming of Christ as were the Millenarians, these secular politicians, from Napoleon Bonaparte to British foreign secretary Lord Palmerston (1785-1865) to Ernest Laharanne, the private secretary of Napoleon III in the 1860s, sought to expel the Jews of Europe to Palestine in order to set them up as agents of European imperialism in Asia. Their call would be espoused by many "anti-Semites", a new label chosen by European anti-Jewish racists after its invention in 1879 by a minor Viennese journalist by the name of Wilhelm Marr, who issued a political programme titled The Victory of Judaism over Germanism. Marr was careful to decouple anti-Semitism from the history of Christian hatred of Jews on the basis of religion, emphasising, in line with Semitic philology and racial theories of the 19th century, that the distinction to be made between Jews and Aryans was strictly racial.

The whole article can be found here.


Al-Jazeera rectified its decision after lots of criticism, anmong them Glenn Greenwald in The Guardian. His artcile is interestingan can be found here.   
Massad's article, now republished by Al-Jazeera accopmpanied by an editorial nota, can be found here. 

Syrian Cartoonist Ali Farzat plans to relaunch satirical magazine in Egypt

Issue of Al-Domari

 Ali Farzat, possibly Syria's best known cartoonist plans to relaunch his independent magazine Al-Domari, meaning the Lamp Lighter, in Egypt. The magazine, which was founded in 2000 during a brief period of media freedom, was forced to shut down by Assad's government in 2003.
Farzat who is currently in Egypt, told  this in an interview with Reuters press agency.  "The magazine's purpose is to gradually remove the darkness that befell our Arab world," he said.
Farzat told the agency that he hopes to form a symposium with young artists and cartoonists in Egypt to support the art movement that grew out of Egypt's uprising. "These cartoons stem from the sorrows of people. They give them courage and determination," said Farzat.

A little more than a year ago Farzat was kidnapped, beaten and burned in an attack that was apparently the work of the Syrian security agencies in a attempt to silence him. His hands were smashed and he suffered facial burns, a temporary loss of his eyesight and multiple broken bones. Farzat escaped to Kuwait to recuperate, but recently came to Egypt.
Farzat earned recognition in the Arab world and beyond for stinging cartoons of Arab leaders such as Libya' Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein of Iraq and finally Bashar Assad.

Farzat: self portrait after the attack

Daily News Egypt closed by the management

Very sad news:  Egypt's first independent English language daily newspaper Daily News Egypt will cease publication after seven years of reporting. The decision was made by the managing company, Egypt Media Services, in goes into effect immediately.
The editorial team published its final message on Sunday under the headline: 'Daily News Egypt: Final Words'. "After seven years of providing hard breaking news and analysis on Egypt, and being the only independent English-language printed daily in the country, we regret to inform our loyal readers that, as far as the current editorial staff was informed, the paper will no longer be published."

My heart goes out to the journalists at the Daily News, most of the enthusiast young women who did a good job and invested a lot of their powers and emotions in what was a newspaper that was in some respect a pioneer, and was always well informed and worth reading. I visited the paper last year and remember with pleasure the conversation I had with several of the people who worked at the Daily News.  I wish the staffers all the strength they need, as well as all the luck in the world in finding alternative jobs. And I do hope that their wish, to be able to keep at least their website even if it will be at their own expenses, will be fulfilled. 

Malaysia deports Saudi journalist who 'insulted Muhammad'

Malaysia on Sunday deported the 23 year old Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari, accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad on Twitter, in spite of warnings of rights groups that he will be persecuted at home. 

Hamza Kashgari

Kashgari, a journalist from Jeddah,  was detained Thursday upon his arrival in Malaysia. Amnesty International had called Kashgari a "prisoner of conscience" and called for his release. Human Rights Watch had urged Malaysia to allow him to seek asylum. On Sunday he was flown back to Saudi Arabia.

Kashgari wrote on the birthday of the prophet Muhammed:

“On your birthday, I will say that I have loved the rebel in you, that you’ve always been a source of inspiration to me, and that I do not like the halos of divinity around you. I shall not pray for you,”
In another tweet he said: “On your birthday, I find you wherever I turn. I will say that I have loved aspects of you, hated others, and could not understand many more.”
And in a third: “On your birthday, I shall not bow to you. I shall not kiss your hand. Rather, I shall shake it as equals do, and smile at you as you smile at me. I shall speak to you as a friend, no more.”

Two Saudi clerics deemed him an apostate because of this. He then fled the country. Kashgari may face the death penalty.
Shame on the Malaysian (and Saudi) authorities.

Five years for 19-year old Syrian blogger Tal Mallouhi

Tal al-Mallouhi, a 19-year old Syrian blogster and student, has been sentenced to five years in prison by a state security court, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement on Monday."The state security court in Damascus today condemned blogger Tal al-Mallouhi to five years in prison after finding her guilty of divulging information to a foreign country,' it said in a statement received in Nicosia.
In October, Syria's Al-Watan newspaper reported that the authorities were accusing Mallouhi, a 19-year-old high school student, of spying for the US embassy in Egypt.
The charge was denied by Washington, which on Saturday called for her 'immediate release' and condemned her 'secret trial'. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in a statement that Washington "rejects as baseless allegations of American connections that have resulted in a spurious accusation of espionage.
Three Syrian rights groups said in late November that Mallouhi 'was interviewed on November 10 by the High Court for State Security and then returned to her women's prison in Duma, near Damascus'. The statement expressing 'extreme concern' was signed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights and the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria.
Mallouhi, granddaughter of a former minister under the former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, had been 'held incommunicado without charge for nine months,' Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in September. She was first detained in late December 2009. (AFP)

Jane Corbin, the impartiality of a BBC diva

Israeli diplomatic missions seem to have sent copies to their relations around August 18. I myself received one from one of my Israeli contacts: the documentary of BBC's Panorama about the attack on the Gaza Flotilla on 31 May. The film, 'Death on the Med' was made by Jane Corbin and I wonder how many people could have been pleased by it, apart from, obviously, the Israeli government and their friends.
Corbin, I have to tell, was never my favorite BBC journalist. In 1993 (or was it '94?) I got to review her book on the Oslo negotiations, called 'Gaza First'. The book was absolutely unbeatable in one respect. Iit gave an impeccable (or so it looked) account of what the negotiaters got fo diner during all those hectic days in that villa outside Oslo. She would write that this or tht days was concluded with a diner of salmon with cream sauce, baked potates and a cucumber slad, with strawberries for dessert.
As far as the less mundaine business of political wrangling was concerned, she was totally at the side of the Israelis. Her lack of impartiiality was in fact only matched by her unshakable belief in her own judgment.When I read at some points that the Palestnians seemed to be giving away valuable negotiating positions that were backed by internationally recognized resolutins and documents, Corbin remarked that at last they seemed to become 'a bit reasonable'. When on the contrary the Palestinians were holding on to points like the divison of Jerusalem, she called them 'stubborn' or even 'out ogf touch with reality'..
And here she was again. With a documentary about what happened aboard the Mavi Marmara, the flagship of the Freedom Flotilla, where on the 31st May a fight took place in which nine people got killed. Corbin could make use for her story  of material that the Israelis confiscated from the people aboard and never gave back, apparently with the intention to use it some time as a kind of testimonials against the participants of the Flotilla. Or even better, to have it used as such by a trustworthy third party.  Apparently where most other journalists would heve refused the honor, Corbin acceptd and appeared to be such a party.
Her film turned out to be a quest to find out whether the Gaza Flotilla people were genuinly trying to do something for Gaza, or had in fact other, less honorable things in mind. And yes, at the end of her documentary she turns towards the camera and gives us her verdict. With a stern look she tells us in a fir voice that 'this was not an attempt to bring aid to Gaza, this was a political move to put pressure on Israel and the internationale community'.
Oh really? Was it?
I thought nobody told ever otherwise. The Turkish IHH and the other organizers of this Freedom Flotilla were absolutely intent on delevering much needed medicine and other goods, but their main, declared goal had always been to put pressure on, and draw the attention of the international community to, the inhumane blockade of Gaza in order to have it lifted. I thought everybody would have known, but apparently Ms Corbin didn't. For her it was quite a discovery, and to that one that in her eyes seemed to degrade the whole Flotilla enterprise to the level of an ordinary political stunt ( - or maybe even an exercise in Israel bashing). At any rate it was clear that she strongly disapproved of it. To judge from the way she reached some remarkable conclusiin , after 20 minutes of  bad, uncomplete and biased journalism.
A few examples:

She refers to the Turkish charity IHH as an organisation which is suspected by many government of having links to  terror organisations. In fact not any government says that -  apart from Israel of course.
She interviews Giora Eiland, the main Israeli military investigator of the Flotilla episode, and gives him ample room to declare that there is proof  that  the activists at the Mavi Marmara had fire arms and did use them. But she does not ask him why there was not one of these fire arm found, even though the Israelis assembled almost all kitchen utensils and repair kits aboard to show how well armed the Mavi Marmara people were. Neither does she ask him why no Israeli soldier was wounded by gunshots, or why the Israeli's painted over and removed the traces on the Mavi Marmara before they returned the boat. Nor asked she any questions about the autopsies of several of the Turkish victims, which showed that most had been killed by more than one shot from close range and from different angles (and why one Turk, who was armed with nothing bjut a camera, was killed by a single shot - also at very close range - in his forehead).

Throughout the film Corbin constantly keeps asking the question what the real motives of the people aboard the Mavi Marmara were. And to illustrate the possibility that some may have had less noble goals, she uses, among other things,  a tape of the conversation between the Israeli command center and the ships. On this tape one can clearly hear phrases like 'Go back to Auschwitz', supposedly uttered by the men on the ships. But wait...., wasn't this a tape that had been doctored by the Israeli army spokesman's office? As the Israeli's themselves had to admit after the blogosphere proved it? Didn't Corbin know? Oh yes, she did. Iin the film she mentions that there was a controverse around it. Yet, she uses it,  falsification or not.
Amazing, eh? One really wonders how a person like herself could survive so long at the BBC, in an atmosphere were impartiality and an investigative kind of journalism are so much more the standard than her own way of doing things. Could it be that Corbin is kept as a kind of counterweight, so that the BBC vis a vis Israel creates a window of possiblity to occasionally tell the truth? Or has it more to do with the fact that she is married to the  conservative MP John Maples (since 2010 member of the House of Lords), who was quite influential in the party and has long held the position of president of the Conservative Friends of Israel?