‘Journalism is not a crime’: Solidarity evening demands freedom for detainees

Dozens of Journalists Syndicate general assembly members organized a solidarity evening Wednesday for imprisoned journalists. The gathering served as a collective push to rally the union’s ranks against an escalating crackdown on independent media and growing restrictions on journalistic work.

During the event, organized by journalists in the syndicate’s lobby and unattended by board members except for Eman Ouf, head of the syndicate’s Freedoms Committee, participants displayed photos of the imprisoned journalists. 

They also contributed expressive drawings and cartoons criticizing attacks on press freedom and the detention of journalists in publishing cases.

The evening featured several journalists writing messages to their imprisoned colleagues. Some participated in making artwork and banners that demanded press freedom and rejected the detention of journalists. Participants hung the banners in the syndicate’s lobby, displaying slogans such as “Repression is no solution, journalism is not a crime,” “Freedom for journalists,” “Matsadaash,” and “Freedom for the press.”

The event also included a storytelling session where reporters looked back at past union battles against press curbs, urging members to stand together against the latest crackdown on reporting.

During the session, journalist Medhat El-Zahed recalled the 1989 Iron and Steel Company workers’ strike, along with the “arrest and torture” he and his colleagues faced at the time.

El-Zahed pointed to the stance of the then head of the Journalists Syndicate, Makram Mohamed Ahmed, who, he said, protested their treatment and visited them in prison despite their political differences. El Zahed and his colleagues belonged to the leftist opposition, while Makram Mohamed Ahmed was closer to the authorities.

Former syndicate undersecretary Gamal Fahmy recalled the events of the 2016 newspaper blackout dispute. He addressed the positions of journalists and editors-in-chief during the crisis that erupted after security forces raided the Journalists Syndicate headquarters on May 1 of that year and arrested journalists Amr Badr and Mahmoud El-Sakka.

During that incident, newspapers blacked out their pages and some suspended publication to protest the Ministry of Interior’s assault on the syndicate’s premises and its arrest of the two journalists.

Yesterday’s event took place against the backdrop of the detention of six journalists representing the editorial team of the independent Matsadaash platform. Security forces arrested the journalists on Sept. 28 and 29 and forcibly disappeared them for five days before bringing them before the Supreme State Security Prosecution. The prosecution decided to remand them in custody for 15 days pending investigation after accusing them of “spreading false news and joining a terrorist group,” amid reports they were subjected to torture, which the Ministry of Interior later denied.