Washington – September 29, 2008 – Freedom House urges the international community to strongly condemn the Egyptian government for its increasing efforts to intimidate independent journalists and curtail free speech as seen in the current case of Ibrahim Eissa.



An appeals court sentenced Eissa, the editor of the independent daily al-Dustor newspaper, to two months in prison on Sunday for writing stories that questioned the health of 80-year-old President Hosni Mubarak. Eissa was among several editors who suggested in 2007 that Mubarak was ill after he made fewer public appearances than usual. The government said Eissa's reports weakened the stock market and scared off international investors.



"Egyptian journalists, led by outspoken editors such as Ibrahim Eissa, are pushing back against the thuggish repression of the Mubarak regime," said Jennifer Windsor, Freedom House executive director. "The international community should rally around these individuals who yearn for a society in which the government can be openly questioned and changed at the ballot box."



Eissa's case is part of a wider crackdown on journalists that Freedom House has measured in recent years. The government’s repressive laws and the extralegal intimidation of journalists continue to erode press freedom in Egypt. The Emergency Law, the Press Law, and other provisions of the penal code circumscribe the press, despite constitutional guarantees of press freedom.



At the same time, Egyptian journalists are increasingly pushing back against these so called red-lines, succeeding in expanding the diversity of media coverage available to Egyptian citizens. This positive trend, despite the government's efforts to silence journalists, earned the country a ranking of Partly Free in the 2008 edition of Freedom of the Press, Freedom House's annual survey of press freedom.