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24 Jun 2014

#FreeAJStaff: world stands shoulder to shoulder

Exactly 24 hours after three Al Jazeera journalists were jailed in Egypt for terror related charges, hundreds of colleagues have staged a silent protest in their support.

Staff from the BBC and other news organisations held a one minute silent protest outside New Broadcasting House in London at 9.41am, the time on Monday that Peter Greste, an Australian journalist, Baher Mohammed, an Egyptian producter, and Mohammed Fahmy, acting Cairo bureau chief, were jailed for seven years each.

Sue Turton, another Al Jazeera journalist who previously worked for Channel 4 News, was sentenced to 10 years in her absence.

Protests against the sentences began last night. The Channel 4 News team taped up their mouths, filming the results and airing them on the 7pm show, with the show’s end credits led by a taped-up Jon Snow.

Jon Snow taped up in support of the three jailed Al Jazeera journalists

This morning, the newly elected Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi dashed hopes that the three could be released under a pardon.

“We will not interfere in judicial rulings,” he said in a televised speech at a military graduation ceremony in Cairo. “We must respect judicial rulings and not criticise them even if others do not understand this.”

Rights groups and western governments have rounded on Egypt for jailing the three. They were sentenced for aiding a “terrorist organisation” stemming from an interview with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Their jailing comes against a backdrop of ongoing concerns over human rights in Egypt. At the weekend, a court in Cairo upheld death sentences against 183 supporters of the ousted Muslim Brotherhood.

In April, a judge in Minya in southern Egypt sentenced 1,200 people to death in two separate cases on charges that included storming police stations and killing at least two police officers.

Today, staff from Broadcasting House were joined by representatives from Al Jazeera and Sky, among others. Many appeared with black tape over their mouths to represent the “gagging” aspect of the verdicts. They also carried signs bearing the slogan: “#FreeAJStaff”.

John Sweeney, a reporter with the BBC’s Panorama, said that altbough he does not think the protest “will really achieve much”, it was an opportunity for journalists to take a stand. He appealed to members of the public “not to go on holiday to Egypt, there are lots of other sunny places they could go to”.

Protests were also held by staff at the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia.

In the US, the New York Times left its back page blank as a powerful message about the verdicts.

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