Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste has been released by Egyptian authorities after over a year of incarceration. Greste’s two colleagues, journalists Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy still remain imprisoned.
Al Jazeera has said that the campaign to free its journalists in Egypt will not end till all three have been released. The network says that all three must be exonerated, and the convictions against its other journalists tried in absentia also have to be lifted.
Mostefa Souag, acting Director General of Al Jazeera Media Network said:
“We’re pleased for Peter and his family that they are to be reunited. It has been an incredible and unjustifiable ordeal for them, and they have coped with incredible dignity. Peter’s integrity is not just intact, but has been further enhanced by the fortitude and sacrifice he has shown for his profession of informing the public.
“We will not rest until Baher and Mohamed also regain their freedom. The Egyptian authorities have it in their power to finish this properly today, and that is exactly what they must do.”
In an interview with AIB last month, Al Jazeera’s Head of Global Newsgathering, Heather Allan, said:
“We are fighting it every inch of the way. We don’t know which way it’s going to bounce. The first trial, quite honestly, was just a mockery of justice. You go through the evidence that was shown, there really was nothing there. Nothing there at all.
“Peter Greste had been in the country for ten days. He’d never been to Cairo before. The few reports he had done were all online. You can see them. We’ve always said to people: “Please, look at the journalism. It’s there. We’re not hiding anything.” Mohamed Fahmy had been working for everybody from the New York Times to CNN. He was a well known journalist around Cairo. Baher Mohamed worked for the Japanese – a younger journalist, and well known to the Cairo press corps. I think they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”