Egypt: Free expression still outlawed in Egypt

In a letter to Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak, the organization notes that Egyptian journalists and bloggers continue to face imprisonment and heavy fines, as well as harassment on the basis of criminal defamation charges, preventing the reporting of matters of public interest. [...] Amendments of the Penal Code in 2006 failed to live up to that promise and many controversial provisions of the Penal Code and the Press Law remain in force. [...] In its letter, Amnesty International also noted the continued imprisonment of the blogger Karim Amer, who was sentenced in 2007 to four years in prison. [...] He was charged with “spreading information disruptive of public order and damaging to the country’s interest”, “incitement to hate Islam” and “defaming the President of the Republic” under articles 102bis, 176 and 179 of the Penal Code. [...] Egypt’s repressive legislation and practices were condemned by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), a group of human rights experts of the United Nations, when it ruled in November 2008 that Karim Amer has been arbitrarily detained, and called for his release.