Al Jazeera, Other Journalists on Trial in Egypt for Allegedly Supporting Muslim Brotherhood: Can’t Intertwine Media and the State

The trial in Egypt of 20 journalists, including
nine from Al Jazeera, on charges of allegedly aiding and abetting
the Muslim Brotherhood and spreading false information about unrest
in the country, was
adjourned until March. Eight of the journalists have been
detained since at least December, and one, Al Jazeera correspondent
Peter Greste, penned
a letter on the poor conditions at the prison he and others are
being held.  Al Jazeera reports on Greste  and two other
detained journalists who are
with Al Jazeera English:

Since their arrest, journalists
have staged protests worldwide demanding their release,
and rejecting claims the three have links to the Muslim
Brotherhood, Egypt’s former ruling party which has since been
designated a “terrorist” group.

The case is one of many that have led to criticism of Egypt’s
military-backed government, with rights groups pointing to growing
intolerance for dissent in the Arab world’s most populous
country.

“Journalists should not have to risk years in an Egyptian prison
for doing their job,” Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director
at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

“The prosecution of these journalists for speaking with Muslim
Brotherhood members, coming after the prosecution of protesters and
academics, shows how fast the space for dissent
in Egypt is evaporating.”

Voice of America adds:

Many Egyptians and the pro-government media suspect
foreign journalists of unfair coverage of the political upheaval in
Egypt, but special anger is reserved for Al Jazeera, the
Qatar-based satellite channel that is widely seen as backing the
Muslim Brotherhood of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.
 
Qatar’s rulers support the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt’s
ex-president Mohamed Morsi, and Egypt’s interim government has
criticized Qatari leaders for giving safe haven to Muslim
Brotherhood members.

Voice of America is essentially a broadcast arm of the U.S.
government, and has been accused of working against the government
or supporting the opposition in places like Cuba and Ethiopia. In
2001, it won an ethics award for running an interview with Mullah
Omar which it was pressured not to by the feds, but that was
followed up by a restructuring
to create VOA outlets that would be easier to manipulate
politically, a move opposed by hundreds of VOA journalists.

Journalists at both VOA and Al Jazeera, and at places like the
BBC and euronews, as well as at outlets not owned, operated or
affiliated with governments, are generally interested in the
practice of journalism. The intertwining of the state and the
media, however, is detrimental to a free press not just in a place
like Egypt, where most media is state owned and the government
appears in a total war against a free press, but also when
governments, be they the U.S., the U.K. or Qatar, subsidize
international media operations. Once the government is involved in
media, the involvement will only grow. Even as Voice of America,
the BBC, or Al Jazeera remain broadly trusted by their significant
viewerships, the governments backing them move to crack down on a
free press. The U.S.
dropped 13 places in the most recent press freedom rankings,
the U.K., like Egypt, is
conflating journalism and terrorism, and in Qatar there is
little of any free press. It’s ranked 133^rd on the
Reporter Without Borders index that dropped the U.S. to
45^th and placed the U.K. at 33^rd. Egypt is at
159 out of 180.