VP tells media of plan to pass law to prohibit detention of journalists as editor stands trial for 'insulting the president'
Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi will exercise his legislative mandate to prohibit the detention of journalists, after a court on Thursday remanded into custody a newspaper editor standing trial for defaming him.
The court ruled that Islam Afifi, whose newspaper has been critical of Morsi and warned of dire consequences of Brotherhood rule in Egypt, should be detained until his next hearing in September. However, shortly after the ruling, the vice-president, Mahmoud Mekki, told the El-Badil newspaper that Morsi intends to pass a law to prohibit the detention of journalists in such cases, using legislative powers he possesses in the absence of parliament.
Afifi, the editor of Al-Dustour, is on trial for various charges, including "insulting the president", which is a crime in Egypt. He is also charged with spreading rumours that have disturbed the peace and harmed the public interest.
Other journalists also face similar charges related to insulting Morsi – and by extension the Muslim Brotherhood – in the press. Among them are two editors, Adel Hamouda of El-Fagr and Abdel-Halim Qandil of Sawt Al-Umma. A satellite-TV "shock jock", Tawfik Okasha, faces a different charge – of threatening on-air to kill Morsi.
The president's intention, however, has not spared Afifi, who has been sent to Torah prison to serve the detention order. The case has raised concerns about press freedom. Advocacy group Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) condemned Afifi's detention and called for the right to detain journalists on trial to be struck from the law. It pointed out that under Egyptian law, journalists cannot be detained for publishing crimes with the exception of the charge of insulting the president, an exception kept by ousted president Hosni Mubarak.
EIPR lawyer Adel Ramadan said: "We didn't expect this shocking decision. There is already a decision to ban him from travelling. Why detain him as well?"
However, Mahmoud Helmy, the former MP and member of the Islamic Brotherhood's political arm the Freedom and Justice Party, said this was not a case of settling scores with critics of the group. "It is vital in the transition to democracy that the rule of law is enforced. We are not into settling scores: we were the first to suffer from extraordinary laws… We care about the rule of law – and while it is fine to criticise, we won't allow anyone to cross legal boundaries without being held accountable."