Two Sengalese journalists have been given suspended prison sentences after been convicted of criminal libel. Editor Mamadou Biaye and reporter Mamadou Ticko Diatta of private daily newspaper Le Quotidien were given a three month suspended sentence after the publication of an article alleging that Bakary Diémé, deputy mayor of the district of Goudomp, had links to armed separatists of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC). Le Quotidien told the court their information came from military sources, but Diémé rejected the allegations. Diémé was awarded 2 million CFA francs (US$3,500).
A Tunis court today delayed issuing a verdict on Nabil Karoui, general director of Nessma TV, a privately-owned television station, and two of his employees, until 19 April. The three are accused of “violating sacred values” and “disturbing the public order,” for airing the French-Iranian film, Persepolis.
The broadcast of Persepolis, which contains a scene where god is depicted as a white-bearded man, sparked a wave of protests in October. The home of Karoui, as well as the headquarters of Nessma TV were attacked following the broadcast. Depictions of god and religious figures are prohibited in Sunni Islam. If convicted, Karoui could face up to three years in prison. “This is a trial of freedom of expression”, he said as he entered court today.
A few dozen protesters from the extreme right gathered outside the court chanting “Karoui, you coward, the religion of Allah should not be humiliated,” and “the people want the fall of the TV station.”
Employees of Nessma, activists, politicians, artists, and citizens also gathered outside the hearing room, to show their support to the TV station in particular, and defend freedom of speech, in general.
Mrs Kadour, a university teacher, described the trial as being “shameful… political and exaggerated” and said that it was unacceptable “to judge people for their ideas.”
Mounira Laajimi, one of the 144 lawyers that filed complaints against the station, deemed the “timing” of the film’s broadcast as “inappropriate,” as it was shown a few weeks before the 2011 elections. “It caused public disorder just before the elections” she added.
On 20 January, Amnesty International demanded that Tunisian authorities drop the charges against Karoui. “Putting Nabil Karoui on trial simply for screening a film which shows fantasy scenes of God is a very troubling development,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s interim Director for Middle East and North Africa.
“The Tunisian authorities must uphold Nabil Karoui’s right to freedom of expression and drop these charges immediately,” he added. The trial is closely watched by free speech advocates, as it is going to indicate to which extent religion imposes restrictions on freedom of speech, in post revolution Tunisia.
The director general of the BBC, Mark Thompson, has said it is “unreasonable” to suggest other media organisations in the UK “can or could operate in the way the BBC does”.
Testifying at the Leveson Inquiry this morning, Thompson said it was “important for the plurality of media in this country that the press is not constrained” in the same way as the BBC is, with with its public service requirements and statutory backing.
“I think this country has benefited from having a range of media that are funded differently, constituted differently, have different objectives,” he said.
He noted that the British public had “uniquely high” expectations of the broadcaster’s standards, and that the BBC was “committed to being most trustworthy source of news in the world”.
He added that statutory regulation of the press may risk newspapers’ independence from the government.
During his marathon 2 hour and 45 minute session, Thompson said the public service broadcaster used private investigators for surveillance and security purposes, rather than “primary journalistic inquiry”. In his witness statement, Thompson wrote that PIs were used on 232 occasions by the BBC from January 2005 to July 2011, with one being hired in 2001 to track down “a known paedophile”. Thompson said there was a “strong public interest defence justification” for doing so.
Thompson stressed that subterfuge, notably secret filming, would also on used by the BBC in the case of “very serious” public interest stories, adding that there would need to be “clear prima facie evidence” of any wrongdoing, as well as no other journalistic way of recording it.
He cited the abuse at a care home exposed by investigation programme Panorama last year as an example.
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Egyptian state TV— for decades the mouthpiece of the authoritarian regime — is an ugly towering block of concrete and steel overlooking the River Nile at Maspero in downtown Cairo. In the post-revolutionary era, it is a heavily fortified fortress surrounded by barbed wire and stone barricades. Snipers can be spotted on the rooftop and terraces, and uniformed soldiers with machine guns stand guard outside the main entrances and exits. Corrugated iron gates have replaced the once-glass façade adding gloom to an already tense and inhospitable atmosphere inside the building which houses some 45,000 employees.
Upstairs on the fifth floor, a storm is brewing. Outside the main news studio, scores of employees of the main Arabic Nile News Channel are staging a sit-in, which they vow will continue until their demands are met. The demands include an immediate end to censorship and a set of reforms, which they say, are long overdue.
“Etman! Lift your hands off the media!” chant the angry protesters. Their message is addressed to Ismail Etman, the senior military general who currently heads the Armed Forces Morale Affairs Department.
‘‘We are also telling the station managers to keep their hands off. We are tired of censorship and interference in our editorial work,” complains Aly El Attar, a director at the channel.
The protest was triggered by the banning of a documentary on the 25 January revolution, produced by fellow director Aly El Geheny. Titled Tahrir Square, the documentary includes footage of the brutal treatment of peaceful protesters by security forces against during the mass uprising early last year. The decision by the Head of the News Sector not to broadcast the film enraged staff at the channel prompting them to take action. They vowed to show the film “with or without his consent.”
“We had a revolution a year ago but nothing has changed,” laments newscaster Iman Mansour. “We still work in a stifling and restrictive atmosphere. We are still waiting for the restructuring of editorial policies and the purging of state TV. ”
She insists that the red lines remain in place: the ruling military council having now replaced Hosni Mubarak as the new line that cannot be crossed.
“If a guest starts criticising the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), the atmosphere in the studio becomes tense and I’m instructed by the show producers to cut the program short,” Mansour says.
“On the other hand, if the guest is pro-SCAF, he or she is allowed to ramble on for as long as they like.”
But this maybe about to change.
Mansour affirms that in the past many of her co-workers practiced self- censorship because they were afraid of losing their jobs or worse still, of facing an investigation by a military court. These fears have been reinforced by recent media reports of fellow journalists and bloggers being summoned for interrogation by the Military Prosecutor — a trend, which according to the protesting journalists has become “all too common” in the post-revolutionary era.
Mahmoud El Azaly, a news editor at the channel complains that the station management had recently handed them an updated list of the guests they were permitted to host on their live shows. “This is unacceptable. In a free media, all voices are heard. No one is excluded,” he argues affirming that the channel has also extended its boycott of outspoken critics of the military rulers such as former Presidential-hopeful Mohamed El Baradei and author Alaa El Aswany.
Just days before Egypt’s Second Revolution, a protest planned by activists demanding an end to military rule, the Nile News journalists say they are adamant about covering events as they unfold. “Last year, we were confined to our studios and were not authorised to report from Tahrir. Now we are being told to cover the pro-military rally in Abbassiya instead. But we are not going to repeat the mistakes of the past. Our cameras will be in Tahrir too. We share the aspirations of the pro democracy activists,” El Attar asserts.
While a number of talk show hosts working for independent channels have taken a stand in recent months threatening to quit if their shows were censored, state television’s critics allege it is still biased in favour of the authorities. The journalists’ chants of “Down with military rule!” and “Thowar! Ahrar! We are free revolutionaries and we shall continue our revolution!” outside the Maspero office of the new Minister of Information mark a turning point and perhaps, a break from a repressive past.
