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Arab Journalists Support their Tunisian Colleagues
Saturday, December 5, 2009
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information stated that Arab Journalists expressed their support to their Tunisian colleagues as part of their mission to support and defend press freedom in Tunisia. This solidarity was expressed in the following statement:
Arab journalists express their solidarity with their colleagues In Tunisia
Defending the freedom of press and Tunisian Journalists
Arab journalists have signed this statement to express their absolute solidarity with out colleagues and Tunisian brothers and our support to the freedom of the press in Tunisia. This freedom has been violated in a cruel unprecedented manner since the issuance of Al Raed newspaper in 1860.
This campaign against the freedom of the press has taken a dangerous trend. This includes fabricating criminal cases against many of our colleagues prosecuting them with libel and defamation charges, questioning their patriotism and launching physical attacks on them. In addition, the government has taken over the independent National Union of Tunisian Journalists’ turning it into a governmental institution.
As a result, we stress that;
First, the press in the Arab world will never be independent or free as long as this press and its journalists are facing repression from the government. Our colleagues, Tunisian journalists are being detained, like Toufik Ben Brik and Zuhair Makhlouf continues based on their writings.
Second, our struggle for democratic societies in the Arab World begins certainly with the affirmation of supporting the right of Arab journalists to work in an environment free from incitement and fabricating criminal cases against journalists.
Third, we absolutely reject how the Tunisian Government keeps putting our colleague journalists into jail and assaulting them for doing their job; informing the public with credibility believing in their right to be critical and oppose the government.
Fourth, we express our support to those colleagues and hold to the right of the democratically elected leadership of the National Union of Tunisian Journalists to regain their positions. We also demand the Tunisian authorities and the ruling party to stop interfering in the Union's affairs.
Fifth, we refuse the financial and material temptations that the Tunisian government offers to some Arab newspapers and journalists to publish advertisements that distort the truth especially about the conditions of Human Rights and Freedom of Expression in Tunisia.
Finally, we confirm that freedom of press in Tunisia is an integral part of freedom of the press in the Arab World.
Signatories;
- Elias Khoury, Journalist and writer, Lebanon
- Hanu Shukrallah, Ahorouk independent newspaper- Egypt
- Gamal Fahmy, Journalist and board member of Journalists' Syndicate – Egypt
- Rally Michael, Journalist, Lebanon
- Ibrahim Mansour, Addustour independent newspaper- Egypt
- Hessa Seif, journalist- UAE
- Khaled AlSerjany, Addustour newspaper- Egypt
- Amira Tahawy, journalist, Egypt
- Toufik Shouman, journalist- Egypt
- Khaled Elbalshy- Chief Editor of El Badeel newspaper, Egypt
- Magdy Helmy- Al Wafd newspaper- Egypt
- Nafisa Elsabagh, journalist, Egypt
- Hossam El Hamalawy, journalist, Egypt
- Lyal Hadad, Journalist at Al Akhbar newspaper, Lebanon
- Bessan Kassab, journalist at Addustour newspaper, Egypt
- Hesham Younis, Al Ahram newspaper, Egypt
- Mohammed Abdul Hafeez Saad, Ashorouk newspaper, Egypt
- Amro AbdulGhany, Ataawoun newspaper, Egypt
- Ahmad Badr, Addustour newspaper, Egypt
- Sameh Mosaad, Ataawoun newspaper, Egypt
- Radwan Adam, Addustour newspaper, Egypt
- Besheer AlBakr, Journalist and writer, Paris, Syria
- Mostafa Bassiouni, Addustour newspaper, Egypt
- Amer Shomly, cartoonist, Palestine
- Zakaria Mohammed, Poet, Palestine
- Rasheed Mahameed, Michaal newspaper, Morocco
- Abdul Karim Mohammed El Khiwany, journalist, Yemen
- Faten Hamoudy, journalist – Syria, UAE
- Mohammed Khair, Addustour newspaper, Egypt
- Amro Badr, Addustour newspaper, Egypt
- Abdul Kader Mohammed Abdul Kader, Al Midan newspaper, Egypt
- Zouhair Latif, Media worker and journalist- London
- Faisal al Bagir, Journalist, Sudan
- Mohammed Abdullah Ahmed Soliman, cartoonist, Al Masry Al Youm newspaper, Egypt
- Abdul Monem Mahmoud, Addustour newspaper, Egypt
- Ayman Hamdy Khalil, Media worker and journalist, Palestinian TV
- Khalil El-Awamy, Al Wafd newspaper, Egypt
- Hussein Abdul Ghany, Journalist from Aljazeera Channel.
- Hossam Tamam, Journalist, Egypt
- Doha Shams , Alakhbar , Lebanon
- Gawad Elkheny , akhbar Elwatn , Morocco
- Ahmed hassan maghraby , ELhayah , lebanon
- Beyar Abysaab , Elakhbara , lebanon
- Marwan Ali, Syrian journalist and poet,Germany
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