Cairo News Company Acquitted

In a follow up of a previous post, the Cairo News Company has been acquitted of charges of operating without a license, according to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. The group and its managing director were originally fined a total of E£150,000 and had equipment valued in the millions of Egyptian pounds confiscated.

Shoe Thrower Gets Reduced Sentence

It's not in Egypt, but he was a journalist in the region. Muntadar Al Zaidi received a reduced jail sentence to one year for showing a shoe at Bush. The new ruling was that he was insulting a foreign leader rather than assaulting one. It's a good sign of freedom of expression, and also he'll probably be released in September taking into consideration "pre-trial custody and the customary reductions of sentences," according to the BBC.

When he's released, this guy will never pay for a meal in the rest of his life. I wouldn't be suprised if he gets elected to office.

A Century of Press Restrictions

The Daily News Egypt published a story about the history of Egyptian press restrictions here, connecting the current day to exactly one hundred years ago:
http://thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=20774

Egyptian Blogger Released

Authorities released Egyptian blogger Diaa Eddin Gad in the end of March, after seven weeks of detainment, according to Reuters.

Police arrested the 22-year-old blogger and activist on February 6 outside his home in Gharbiya after he wrote against the Egyptian government's role in the Israeli attack on Gaza in his blog Sawt Ghadib or "An Angry Voice" (http://soutgadeb.blogspot.com), the news agency said.

Egyptian Journalist Sparks Religious Violence

Violence against people of the Bahai faith recently broke out in Egypt following a legal decision to allow them to not list one of the three recognized Abrahamic faiths in Egypt (Judaism, Christianity & Islam) on their identity card. During the program “Al Haqiqa” (The Truth) on the satellite channel Dream, Gamal Abdel Rahim, a journalist for the state run newspaper Al-Gomhuria, accused Bahais of apostasty and told the Bahai woman on the show "she should be killed," according to Daily News Egypt's chief editor, Rania Al Malky. Violence in a few towns in Egypt ensued. Al Malky suggested that the Journalists' Syndicate, of which Abdel Rahim is a board member, should discipline Abdel Rahim for inciting violence by using hate speech.

See the editorial here: http://thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=20838
Also see the story about violence: Citizens Set Fire to Homes of Four Baha'is in Sohag Following the Appearance of One of them on Television

List of detained bloggers & activists

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information interviewed six bloggers and Internet activists who have been abducted by the Egyptian security since November, 2008.

The five abductees are:

1. Abdul Aziz Mogahed, AL-Mogahed blog http://elmogahed02.blogspot.com, kidnapped November 3, 2008 and released on March 3, 2009.
2. Mohammed Adel, nicknamed 'Dead' http://43arb.info/meit, kidnapped November 20, 2008, and released March 8, 2009.
3. Philip Rizk, Tabula Gaza blog, http://tabulagaza.blogspot.com, kidnapped February 6, 2009 and released February 11, 2009.
4. Dia Eddin Gad, an angry voice, http://soutgadeb.blogspot.com, kidnapped February 6, 2009 and released March 27, 2009.
5. Rami Al-Swisi, an activist in the 6th of April youth movement "I Need to Take My Right Back", http://www.facebook.com/inbox/readmessage.php?t=1096729544357#/profile.php?id=668175403&ref=share , kidnapped March 2, 2009 and released March 3, 2009.

6. Yousef Al-Eshmawi, an internet activist, kidnapped in Saudi Arabia, August 24, 2008, and still held in detention without charge and without any action or comment from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.