Concern in New Egypt as Police Raid Al-Jazeera
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on September 12th, 2011 4:44 am by HL
Concern in New Egypt as Police Raid Al-Jazeera
Egyptian police raided the Cairo offices of the news network Al-Jazeera on Sunday in what is being interpreted by some of Egypt’s revolutionaries as a crackdown on free expression and a continuation of some of the autocratic practices of the regime of ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak. McClatchy reports that security police confiscated equipment and detained an engineer. Officials for the interim military rulers of Egypt blame the incident on bad paperwork, but the excuse isn’t flying and there are fears among some of the Tahrir Square protesters that their hard-fought freedom is threatened by this and more serious incidents. —PZS McClatchy Newspapers: The contradiction of government policies put us in a complicated situation,” said Safwat el Alem, a professor of political media at Cairo University. “Am I supposed to believe the media minister when he confirms the protection of freedoms, or should I fear him when he announces laws banning the press from tackling vital issues and denying permits for media workers?” […] A blogger who’s been charged with spreading false rumors for publishing a lengthy article on torture by Egyptian police and soldiers said she was uncowed by the military’s hostility. “I will publish on the Internet, on the walls of Tahrir Square; I will write my stories on my shirts and stand in public for people to read it,” said Rasha Azab. “You will never be able to suppress us, not anymore.” Read more
Egyptian police raided the Cairo offices of the news network Al-Jazeera on Sunday in what is being interpreted by some of Egypt’s revolutionaries as a crackdown on free expression and a continuation of some of the autocratic practices of the regime of ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak.
McClatchy reports that security police confiscated equipment and detained an engineer. Officials for the interim military rulers of Egypt blame the incident on bad paperwork, but the excuse isn’t flying and there are fears among some of the Tahrir Square protesters that their hard-fought freedom is threatened by this and more serious incidents.? —PZS
McClatchy Newspapers:
The contradiction of government policies put us in a complicated situation,” said Safwat el Alem, a professor of political media at Cairo University. “Am I supposed to believe the media minister when he confirms the protection of freedoms, or should I fear him when he announces laws banning the press from tackling vital issues and denying permits for media workers?”
[…] A blogger who’s been charged with spreading false rumors for publishing a lengthy article on torture by Egyptian police and soldiers said she was uncowed by the military’s hostility.
“I will publish on the Internet, on the walls of Tahrir Square; I will write my stories on my shirts and stand in public for people to read it,” said Rasha Azab. “You will never be able to suppress us, not anymore.”
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AP Review Downplays Threat From WikiLeaks Disclosures
An Associated Press inquiry into U.S. State Department sources who were outed in the latest unredacted WikiLeaks file dump found virtually no one who felt endangered by public knowledge of their involvement in U.S. government information gathering. The disclosures may make potential sources think twice about sharing information with the U.S., though, as they could fear their names appearing in print—a scenario that is likely to make work harder for American diplomats. Regardless of AP’s report, however, governments around the world continue to denounce WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, saying the group has put lives at risk. —ARK Associated Press: The Italian diplomat’s episode, along with similar stories from several other foreign lawmakers, diplomats and activists cited in the U.S. cables as sources to “strictly protect,” raises doubts about the scope of the danger posed by WikiLeaks’ disclosures and the Obama administration’s angry claims going back more than a year that the anti-secrecy website’s revelations are threatening lives around the world. U.S. examples have been strictly theoretical. … [An] Associated Press review of the sources found several of them comfortable with their names in the open and no one fearing death. Others are already dead, their names cited as sensitive in the context of long-resolved conflicts or situations. Some have publicly written or testified at hearings about the supposedly confidential information they provided the U.S. government. … [The] total damage appears limited and the State Department has steadfastly refused to describe any situation in which they’ve felt a source’s life was in danger. They say a handful of people had to be relocated away from danger but won’t provide any details on those few cases. Read moreAn Associated Press inquiry into U.S. State Department sources who were outed in the latest unredacted WikiLeaks file dump found virtually no one who felt endangered by public knowledge of their involvement in U.S. government information gathering.
The disclosures may make potential sources think twice about sharing information with the U.S., though, as they could fear their names appearing in print—a scenario that is likely to make work harder for American diplomats. Regardless of AP’s report, however, governments around the world continue to denounce WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, saying the group has put lives at risk. —ARK
Associated Press:
The Italian diplomat’s episode, along with similar stories from several other foreign lawmakers, diplomats and activists cited in the U.S. cables as sources to “strictly protect,” raises doubts about the scope of the danger posed by WikiLeaks’ disclosures and the Obama administration’s angry claims going back more than a year that the anti-secrecy website’s revelations are threatening lives around the world. U.S. examples have been strictly theoretical.
… [An] Associated Press review of the sources found several of them comfortable with their names in the open and no one fearing death. Others are already dead, their names cited as sensitive in the context of long-resolved conflicts or situations. Some have publicly written or testified at hearings about the supposedly confidential information they provided the U.S. government.
… [The] total damage appears limited and the State Department has steadfastly refused to describe any situation in which they’ve felt a source’s life was in danger. They say a handful of people had to be relocated away from danger but won’t provide any details on those few cases.
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