As
Egypt Keeps
Shawkan in Jail,
Dujarric & Gallach Break
Rules For Sisi's Akhbar al Yom
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
February 7 – As the
Egyptian
government
stepped up its
crackdown on
the media,
expelling
Liliane Daoud
after
arresting
Yahia Galash
and Azza
Soliman, the
Sisi-supporting
media stayed
quiet or
participated.
The
silence is deafening from Akhbar
al Yom to which UN communications
chief Cristina Gallach is
ghoulishly giving the long time
UN work space of critical Inner
City Press. Swiss
Radio here.
On February 7 in Cairo,
long-imprisoned photo journalist
Mahmoud Abu Zeid - Shawkan - was
brought into court again, but he
was not freed. His medical
records, it's said, will be
reviewed and another hearing
February 25.
Meanwhile at the UN, Akhbar al
Yom says and covers nothing; its
correspondents Sanaa Youssef
rarely comes in and has asked
not a single question. This is
what Gallach, and also holdover
UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
seek to reward while hindering
investigative journalism in the
UN. It is a scam that must end.
Here
is the beginning, on February 6,
of a series.
When the International Press
Freedom Awards were given on November
22 at the Waldorf Astoria,
only three of the four awardees
could be present. Shawkan was
and is still imprisoned by the
al-Sisi government.
Three avenues east of the
Waldorf at the United Nations,
one of al-Sisi's state media
Akhbar al Yom is being awarded
the longtime work space of
investigative Inner City Press,
which outgoing Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon and his head of
Public Information Cristina
Gallach ousted and evicted
earlier this year.
For eleven months, Inner City
Press has only been allowed to
cover UN General Assembly events
when accompanied by a minder,
often unavailable or withdrawn
in the middle of reporting.
Here's
CNN's Jeff Zucker recounting
the meeting with PEOTUS Trump,
on Periscope
The UN Secretariat's ambivalent
stance to press freedom -- Ban
Ki-moon has for example not
taken any public question at UN
headquarters in more than a
month -- has been raised to the
IPFA's sponsor, the Committee to
Protect Journalists.
To the surprise of some, and
ironic now when compared to
CPJ's Trump statements, CPJ did
not challenge the UN Secretariat
as for example the DC-based Government
Accountability Project did. CPJ
said told Inner City Press that
it only works on cases of life
and death.
Now that CPJ has become ever
closed to - accredited in - the
United Nations, perhaps they
will do more. For now, beyond
Shakwan CPJ has given awards to
Can Dundar, Malini Subramaniam
and Oscar Martinez of the online
El Faro in El Salvador. It'd be
nice, too, to hear of Jean
Bigirimana in Burundi, for
example. Watch this site.
***
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