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February 28, 2014

Protests Call for Release of Al Jazeera Journalists Jailed in Egypt 
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Protests and vigils were held across the globe Thursday calling on Egypt
to free four Al Jazeera journalists, three of whom have been charged
with aiding a "terrorist organization." Osama Al Saeed is head of public
relations at Al Jazeera.

Osama Al Saeed: "What we've been seeing over a number of weeks has been
massive support around the world for our journalists to be freed by the
Egyptian authorities, and there's a further ramp-up today. There's
action taking place in over 30 countries. The hashtag #free AJstaff is
trending worldwide again. And we think that pressure will help in
liberating our staff members from their jail cells in Cairo."

One of the Al Jazeera journalists, Abdullah Elshamy, has been held since
August. His wife Jihad Khaled, spoke in Doha on Thursday.

Jihad Khaled: "Egyptian authorities are treating Abdullah as a detainee
from Rabaa like other detainees. Abdullah should be treated as a
journalist, but they are not treating him on this basis. The charges
against him are the same as other people (detained from Rabaa). He was
there to cover the sit-in, no more. As a proof to this, Abdullah was
originally at Abuja office and was called by the network to provide
coverage from Egypt. So, why are you not treating him as a journalist?"

 

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