Outrage in Canada over Sentencing of Journalist

[LovelyLadyLux]

A Canadian-Egyptian journalist has been sentenced on terrorism charges to 7 years. Quite a bit of outrage happening as apparently the trial produced no evidence and seemed a sham.

Didn't personally follow this as it didn't make daily national news here however I never thought there would be a 7yr sentence imposed for seemingly trumped up charges with no evidence in the first place.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/mohamed-fa ... -1.2684136

[Horus]

The news media are covering it all the time today and many governments are calling in their Egyptian embassadors to voice their concern over this, it is making big headlines regarding journalistic freedom and justice in Egypt.

[LovelyLadyLux]

It seems to have more to do with journalistic freedom than anything else. This fellow is Egyptian/Canadian and was working for Al Jazeera as a producer. He wasn't even a reporter writing the news. Seems extremely harsh particularly in lite of there being no real evidence produced.

[Grandad]

It seems the whole western world is appalled at the treatment of these journalists. Their downfall seems to be that they believe in freedom of journalism and report things as they see them. That does not make them MB sympathisers. They were unlucky to have to face a kangaroo court but hopefully pressure from the west and Australia will help with their appeal.

Egypt does itself no favours in the eyes of the wider world with such, so called, legal processes.

[Horus]

I have mixed views on this, Al Jazeera is funded by the ruling family of Qatar and they are Sunni Muslims, so I cannot believe that this organisation is completely unbiased. They may have good news coverage, but they also have an agenda and that is to spread their own creed across the Middle East, so I can see situations where their reporting could be biased and may even have a hidden or subversive agenda to it. So Egypt may well see their style of reporting as an attempt to destabilise the country and as we don’t yet have the full story it is hard to judge, I do believe in free speech, but that does not give people the right to shout “fire” in a crowded cinema.

[carrie]

I used to be a great supporter of Al Jezerra but after the over throw of Morsi I found their reporting here to be extreemely biased in favour of the MB. Qutar is the paymaster, supporters of the Brotherhood and I'm afraid that protests from other countries, calling in of Egyptian Ambassadors to be given a talking to just doesn't cut any ice here.
Remember that the reporting on Arabic channels and that in English by Al Jazzera is not always the same.

[Horus]

I agree Carrie and that was my point, they did seem to have an agenda in supporting Morsi and by implication the MB something Qatar would certainly want.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Whether the reporting was slanted or not (and I don't particularly watch Al Jazeera so dunno) so long as the reporting was as it was factual found then reporters shouldn't be jailed. Perceptions are difficult as I'm sure I would 'see' a matter through Canadian eyes coming with all my history, values, beliefs etc. I'm equally sure somebody else would see the same situation different. Doesn't make either of us wrong however I do believe it is incumbent on the reader to make up their own mind re: what has been written.

[Grandad]

Carries point is an important one in that AG's english language broadcasts can be edited to send a different message to the west than their arabic broadcasts to the middle east.

I also take LLL's point that the public at large should be allowed to make up their own mind from factual reporting.

Just because the MB is a banned organisation, that should not mean that they cannot be reported on. We have banned organisations in the UK but they are still reported on. It comes back, in my opinion to freedom of the press, something that the ruling parties of Egypt and other countries in the region, do not believe in. In the end they all want to be dictators. (But I would say with the benefit of hindsight, those countries are actually far better of with a dictator)

[Horus]

That's true to a large degree Grandad, but we have been equally guilty of a similar censorship. Although I entirely agreed with it at the time (and still do) I remember that certain IRA people were only allowed to be heard bt using an actors voice dubbed when on TV or radio, it was done under Margaret Thatcher to deny a terrorist organisation the oxygen of publicy by seeing their spokesmen give free reign to further their case on the media.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Naively (although not really) I'd hope that ALL journalists would be reporting objectively on the evidence they see and what they see is going to be slanted one way or another. I don't believe we can ever get totally pure news and naively I'd hope that all readers understand that what they're reading could be slanted. I think in actuality lots of the news we read has been slanted to appeal to an audience and many readers believe any and all what they read and never ever realize that the writer might have an agenda.

In principle Egypt doesn't need to be jailing journalists regardless of what they're reporting as it just comes back to the old question of power, control and curbing the media (or exerting any influence over it) isn't democratic.

I didn't realize either that the Canadian journalist apparently seems to have some injury (possible broken shoulder) and has been denied medial treatment. This I heard via a speaker from Amnesty International.

I also quite concur with Carrie that what is being broadcast in one language for one audience isn't necessarily what another audience hears.

[carrie]

After the over throw of Mubarak and the election of Morsi a BBC journalist reported from Luxor, he stopped a number of German tourists outside Luxor temple and asked them if they would return to Egypt if and when Sharia law was introduced. They had no idea what the reporter was talking about he explained that if you were found guilty of stealing something then you would have your hand cut off. Not true. They were appalled and said no they would not return. He then went onto the lower corniche and asked for a beer, the waiter told him tht they didn't serve beer, why not asked the journalist, because of the men with beards he reported that the waiter said, meaning the Muslim Brotherhood.
This particular place was not serving alcohol because the owner had been sentenced to prison for dealing in stolen antiquities and had his licence taken away. Nothing to do with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Despite numerous complaints from residents of Luxor disputing the claims made by the BBC nothing was ever done to refute the report.
I sometimes think that if you are close to a problem then you don't see the full picture but quite often you know the truth of the little part that you are familiar with.
I find the reporting of both the BBC and Al J often biased and misleading.