Al Jazeera Seven seek pardons from Egyptian president

Australian Peter Greste (photo), a former Reuters correspondent, and Britons Sue Turton and Dominic Kane announced the initiative at the headquarters of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in New York. They told a news conference that the lack of pardons for crimes they did not commit had left them in a “fugitive limbo” that severely restricted their international news careers. The four other journalists seeking pardons are all Egyptian and cannot return to Egypt because of their convictions.

Two other Al Jazeera journalists, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, were pardoned by Sisi last week and released from jail. Greste, who had been jailed with them for 400 days, was deported to Australia in February. All of the journalists were accused of spreading false news and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013, when Sisi led a coup that ousted elected President Mohamed Morsi.

Greste, Turton and Kane said there were dozens of countries where they could not travel, including everywhere in Africa and several countries in the Middle East and Europe, because of treaties those countries have with Egypt which meant they could not be certain they would not be arrested and extradited. Greste called his situation “a form of glorified house arrest”. Turton, who left her job with Al Jazeera because of the travel restrictions, said: “We should be given a pardon so we can carry on with our careers.”

Joel Simon, Executive Director of the CPJ, said 18 journalists remained in detention in Egypt, more than in any other Arab country. “The Egyptian government blames journalists for their country’s bad image, but nothing has done more to tarnish Egypt’s international image than the government’s own actions. And this includes the ongoing media crackdown,” Simon said.

Greste worked for Reuters in the mid-1990s, first in Kabul and then as a correspondent in Belgrade. One of the Egyptians in the group, cameraman Mohamed Fawzy, previously worked for Reuters Television, including in Kabul after the 9/11 attacks on the United States. The news conference at CPJ was organised by the strategic communications firm Finsbury, where former Reuters journalist Paul Holmes is a managing partner. ■