PHUKET: Australian journalist Peter Greste and two Aljazeera colleagues have been sentenced to seven years in jail by an Egyptian court after being found guilty of aiding the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood.
Greste and two other reporters working for Qatar-based Aljazeera English were among 20 defendants in a trial that has triggered international outrage amid fears of growing media restrictions in Egypt.
The three, who say they were simply doing their jobs as journalists, were arrested in December as part of a sweeping crackdown on Islamist supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.
On Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry also called for freedom of the press to be upheld in Egypt as he made a surprise visit to Cairo.
Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the federal government was shocked and appalled by the severity of the sentence.
A similar outcry about media freedom in Thailand has marked the unprecedented military versus media criminal defamation suit by the Royal Thai Navy against journalist Alan Morison, also an Australian, and his Thai colleague Chutima Sidasathian.
The case was referred to three times in the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons 2014 report, released on Friday, which summarised the reasons for Thailand being downgraded to Tier 3, the lowest level.
Working for the Phuket-based Phuketwan online news outlet, the pair have reported on the treatment of Rohingya boatpeople in Thailand since 2008.
The two journalists have shared international awards for their coverage but believe the Royal Thai Navy wants the outlet shut down.
Khun Chutima faces a maximum of seven years in jail while Morison, as director of Phuketwan's parent company, faces up to 14 years.
Their trial on Phuket for alleged criminal defamation and an alleged breach of the Computer Crimes Act is due to resume next year.
The case centres on the republication by Phuketwan of a 41-word paragraph.
The paragraph was part of a Reuters series on the Rohingya that won the prestigious Pulitzer prize and more recently the 2014 Society of Publishers in Asia Award for Editorial Excellence in Human Rights Reporting.
Reuters and the two news agency journalists who wrote the paragraph have yet to be charged.
Greste and two other reporters working for Qatar-based Aljazeera English were among 20 defendants in a trial that has triggered international outrage amid fears of growing media restrictions in Egypt.
The three, who say they were simply doing their jobs as journalists, were arrested in December as part of a sweeping crackdown on Islamist supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.
On Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry also called for freedom of the press to be upheld in Egypt as he made a surprise visit to Cairo.
Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the federal government was shocked and appalled by the severity of the sentence.
A similar outcry about media freedom in Thailand has marked the unprecedented military versus media criminal defamation suit by the Royal Thai Navy against journalist Alan Morison, also an Australian, and his Thai colleague Chutima Sidasathian.
The case was referred to three times in the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons 2014 report, released on Friday, which summarised the reasons for Thailand being downgraded to Tier 3, the lowest level.
Working for the Phuket-based Phuketwan online news outlet, the pair have reported on the treatment of Rohingya boatpeople in Thailand since 2008.
The two journalists have shared international awards for their coverage but believe the Royal Thai Navy wants the outlet shut down.
Khun Chutima faces a maximum of seven years in jail while Morison, as director of Phuketwan's parent company, faces up to 14 years.
Their trial on Phuket for alleged criminal defamation and an alleged breach of the Computer Crimes Act is due to resume next year.
The case centres on the republication by Phuketwan of a 41-word paragraph.
The paragraph was part of a Reuters series on the Rohingya that won the prestigious Pulitzer prize and more recently the 2014 Society of Publishers in Asia Award for Editorial Excellence in Human Rights Reporting.
Reuters and the two news agency journalists who wrote the paragraph have yet to be charged.
O.K., Moronson, I`m going to talk to the judge, trying to convince him to book you only for a 13-year-period (instead of 14). This is, because you ****** ****hole are running nothing really important with PW - just a tourist-problems-related ****blog with no real significance, though quite ambitious for your intellect.
Posted by Raland on June 23, 2014 19:31