On the 400th day of his jail sentence, Peter Greste, journalist for Al Jazeera, was released.
However, his colleagues, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, remain in prison.
They are accused of being league with the Muslim Brotherhood, now considered a terrorist organisation operating in Egypt since they were ousted from government in a military coup.
Egypt used a clause on its law books to deport Greste back to Australia. He is currently in Cyprus. Fahmy, a Canadian citizen, is expected to apply for deportation. Mohamed is Egyptian and has no recourse to deportation.
The authoritarian media model that is Egypt is among the worst violators of press freedom in the world. According to Journalists Without Borders, Egypt is 159th out of 180 nations on its press freedom index.
That is hardly a glowing endorsement for a country that claims to have embraced democracy in post-Mubarak Egypt. How can it be?
After their first democratic election since ousting Mubarak in the Arab Spring in 2011, the country’s citizens elected the Muslim Brotherhood. Obviously, many of the powers of the country did not agree with this and ousted the Muslim Brotherhood almost two years ago, labeling them a terrorist organisation and targeting anyone who interacts with them in anyway, including journalists.
While Al Jazeera and the National Union of Journalists in England welcomed the news of Greste’s release from an Egyptian prison, they continue to push for pressure to release Mohamed and Fahmy.
With an election looming in Canada, the Conservative government is under fire for not moving quickly enough to secure the release of Fahmy, a naturalised Canadian. External Affairs Minister John Baird has been in contact with his Egyptian counterpart to secure Fahmy’s release.
However, many see Fahmy now as a pawn in the political chess game in Canada.
But what is even more sickening is the number of people who believe Fahmy should remain in jail because he isn’t “a real Canadian”. Because he plies his trade outside of the country does not make him less of a Canadian than those who live inside the country.
Journalists who cover political hot zones do so out of the Kantian belief in the duty of reporting atrocities committed by the power. The same people who read these and condemn the actions of dictators are the same people who would prefer their government do nothing to secure the release of their fellow citizens when captured by those same corrupt nations.
Mohamed is the odd one out in this deal. He is Egyptian only and has no claim to apply for a deportation order to leave the country. No one should forget Baher Mohamed. He is as innocent as his fellow Al Jazeera journalists. Simply not being eligible for a deportation order does not mean he should be left behind.
This reminds me of the story of The Killing Fields. Dith Pran risked his life to help the New York Times break atrocity after atrocity being committed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. He was left behind, but walked his way to freedom. Hopefully, Baher Mohamed won’t have to walk his way to earn his freedom.