Al Jazeera Correspondent Peter Greste, producers Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed as well as cameraman Mohamed Fawzy in the English section, and Abdullah al-Shami, from Al Jazeera’s Arabic channel have been detained by the Egyptian Government for months now.
Chairman of IPI Nigeria Malam Kabir Yusuf, who, yesterday, led a delegation of IPI members to the Egyptian Embassy in Abuja, said the IPI is also demanding the release of all detained journalists in the country, saying journalists shouldn’t be persecuted for doing their job.
Yusuf told journalists after presenting their petition that the IPI “came to deliver a letter which is an appeal to the Egyptian Government through their embassy here in Abuja to release the journalists from Al Jazeera and any others that have been detained for several months after the Egyptian change of government.
“As journalists, we feel for this people and we know from our own experience as journalists and media workers, that often the messenger is blamed rather than the message. So we asked them to kindly look into this issue; these journalists have been there for several months, some of them getting to 10 months.
“We understand from the point of view of the Egyptians, they said this is a criminal case, that the matter is in court; that these things take time, but we say all the same that in the eyes of the world, these people are journalists being persecuted for doing their work.”
Speaking on the Embassy response, he said “they listened to us; they explained their own point of view, about where Al Jazeera has crossed the line as they see it, misreported, why there is some kind of link between the Qatari Government, which is the main owner or funder of Al Jazeera, that there is politics involved.
“But we said we are not politicians, we do not know the details of the political issues involved, all we are concerned about is that journalists who have been detained for doing their work should be released and be allowed to do their work and what has happened to them can happen to journalists everywhere including in Nigeria. That is the substance of our concern and they said they have heard us and they will pass on the message to the Egyptian Government.”
Those in the delegation are IPI Secretary Raheem Adedoyin, IPI members Mohammed Haruna, Garba Shehe, Folu Olamiti and Mannir Dan Ali.
