The Egyptian public prosecution issued an arrest warrant against the deputy head of the Journalists Union and the Freedoms Committee Khaled Al-Balshy on charges of verbal assault against the police and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, for inciting protests and creating a public disturbance, as well as posting calls on social media to oust the regime. In response, Al-Balshy said: ”Journalists must understand that freedom cannot be given, and they cannot be free when the entire society is oppressed. Moreover, freedom for journalists is a professional necessity.”

The Egyptian public prosecution issued an arrest warrant against the deputy head of the Journalists Union and the Freedoms Committee Khaled Al-Balshy on charges of verbal assault against the police and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, for inciting protests and creating a public disturbance, as well as posting calls on social media to oust the regime. In response, Al-Balshy said: ”Journalists must understand that freedom cannot be given, and they cannot be free when the entire society is oppressed. Moreover, freedom for journalists is a professional necessity.”

In an interview with Correspondents Al-Balshy describes how journalists have faced more harassment and false arrests recently than in any other period in Egyptian history.

Klahed Al-Balshy, can you describe the circumstances surrounding the arrest warrant issued against you?

I was surprised with the decision because I was not contacted or summoned for interrogation beforehand. I learned about the decision from a neighbor in my town of Al-Minoufia, who told me that he saw an arrest warrant against me for charges connected to an online publication. In response I sent my lawyer to inquire about the case and he was not allowed to view the case on the first day he went there.

On the second day however, he was informed the I had been charged by the Assistant Minister of Internal Affairs for verbal assault against the Ministry and the police, inciting public disturbance and calling for ousting the regime on social media. At that moment, I wondered as to how could a warrant be issued even before I was called in for interrogation?

What was more intriguing is that the warrant was issued to the address I have on my personal ID and not my journalist ID. However, I believe that the real reason behind the warrant is my union activity in defending my detained colleagues and the material I publish on Al-Bidaya (The Beginning) website –of which I am the editor-in-chief- about the suppression of journalistic freedoms.

What drove the Ministry of Internal Affairs to go after you?

This course of action comes as a response to my union activity in organizing strikes and sit-ins, demanding the release of detained journalists and denouncing detaining journalists. In addition, the last report issued by the Union’s freedoms committee was not received well by the Ministry, for it sets an account of the abuses practiced against the freedom of opinion and expression in Egypt. The Ministry openly says that I antagonize the state and the regime by my statements and writings, that reveal oppressive practices of the security apparatus.
Last year, while a union conference was taking place, my colleague Rasha Al-Azb and I were accused of calling for protests and assaulting police and army forces. The public prosecution summoned us and interrogated it us on six baseless charges against us. This is the general atmosphere in the country: freedoms are targeted, civil society organizations are attacked, and independent unions are being strangled with lawsuits in the State Council to break them. 

What options are available to you now that the warrant has been issued?

After the intervention of the union, civil society organization and other journalists and authors, the Ministry felt the pressure and withdrew the lawsuit. Moreover, what happened was an abuse against general and journalist freedoms, and it provoked a popular social media campaign on Twitter and Facebook that resulted in signature campaign demanding the ministry to withdraw the lawsuit.

What is the number of detained journalists and what are charges filed against them?

Today, we have 25 journalists in prison and another 15 journalists who are threatened with imprisonment for various charges generally connected to practicing journalism. Some of these journalists were arrested while on duty, like Shokan who was arrested while covering Rabaa events and was later charged with murder, inciting violence and membership in a banned group. Another on-duty-arrested journalist is Yousef Shaaban who was arrested covering the Raml Station events, and charged with committing violence and inciting protests. As for the journalists threatened with arrest, nine of them were charged with verbal abuse by the former Minister of Justice Ahmad Al-Zind. The journalist Ahmad Amer of Bawabat Al-Ahram is one of those nine, alongside his colleague and editor-in-chief Hisham Younes.

Did union officials visit the imprisoned journalists?

We have repeatedly demanded to visit the journalists in prison, but neither the Ministry of Internal Affairs nor the public prosecution allowed it. The union held conventions and filed more than 70 requests to release our colleagues and improve their prison conditions. We also held events about Shokan, Hany Salah Eldin, Hisham Jaafar, Yousef Shaaban, Hosam Al-Said –before his release- and for others, demanding that the government present the circumstances of their arrest and report their health conditions inside prison.

In return, the Ministry showed some minor response after the sit-in we held in the union that lasted from late February until March 2, before the Union’s National Assembly gathered on March 4. The Ministry relatively improved prison conditions for our fellow journalists, took some of them to hospitals and took steps to provide treatment for others. In an attempt to improve its image, the Ministry organized a visit for editors to detention facilities, but that does not actually reflect the real prison conditions and the abuses suffered by journalists in these facilities.

In your opinion, when will journalists be free of security’s harassment?

Journalists will only be able to work freely when the entire country is free of tyranny and dictatorship, when the president abides by the constitution and when the security’s iron fist is put to rest. In addition, journalists also need clear and unambiguous laws to govern their profession, free their union, and set a wage chart that guarantees their independence.
For their part, journalists must understand that freedom is not given, it is taken. The freedom of journalists is part of the general freedom in society; therefore, they should realize that they will not be free unless the whole society is. Moreover, freedom is a professional need, and the profession itself prospers in a free society both socially and economically, and it declines in a dictatorial atmosphere.

How would the unified media law guarantee protection form imprisonment for publishing? And when will it see the light?   

We have redacted in the law, all articles that punish journalists with prison time. Yet, it cannot prevent the authorities from faking evidence to put journalists in prison for charges other than publishing. However, I still stress that the law is important, although what is more important is having a general atmosphere of freedom. As for when will it be active, we are trying to push for its conformation in the current parliamentary round that ends next June.

Are there cases of journalists disappearing? If yes, which cases stand out the most?

There had been cases where journalists were kidnapped for a number of days, as in the case of Al-Battawi, Mahmoud Mustafa and Hosam Al-Saied. As for forced disappearance, there has been only one case where the journalist Sabri Anwar from Al-Badeel website was forcefully disappeared, and when we asked the authorities about him, they told us that he was detained for a legal case. However, when we dug deep, we found the ministry’s information to be false, and now we do not know where Sabri is.

How many violations are there against journalists? Have they increased in comparison to the Mubarak era?

In the last year, 782 violations took place against journalists, in other words, two violations every day. These violations include kidnapping, torture, breaking into houses, destroying cameras and equipment, blocking newspaper publication and banning articles from being published. This is a huge increase compared to the Mubarak era. Egyptian journalism is living its worst times ever.

As the head of the Freedoms Committee and Deputy Head of the Union, how do you describe the condition of freedoms and the security harassment of lawyers in Egypt at the moment?

At the moment, Egypt is suffering a violent assault on freedoms from a dictatorial rule in open war with civil society organizations, independent unions, political parties and even the average citizen, and the situation is getting worse than the period following January 25^th and even before.

Does the current regime fear the press? And, why?

The regime fears everyone who demands freedom, because it does not want the people to develop a strong and clear political movement that push for civil liberties, and by nature, journalists are the loudest voices, pushing people to demand freedom. Therefore, journalists are always harassed by the security apparatus.

Do you will be the last case of the government’s security prosecution of journalists for publication reasons?

No, I don’t think so. As long as the tyrannical regime is here, there will always be violations of journalistic freedoms. And as long as journalists do not unite behind obtaining their freedoms, the situation remains as it is, and the next lawsuit might also be against me.

How do you see the ministry’s withdrawal of the lawsuit it filed against you?

Not much has changed since before and after the lawsuit, except that the Ministry’s behavior has shown that their charges were contrived. What happened with me reflects the violations that Egyptian journalists suffer as they practice their profession.