CAIRO: The Egypt bureau chief of Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera was questioned by a state security prosecutor Thursday after being arrested in the Red Sea resort of Dahab. Hussein Abdel Ghani was accused of broadcasting false information liable to harm Egypt s reputation, the station said, as fellow journalists and rights groups condemned the arrest as an attack on the freedom of the press. The correspondent told his channel that he was almost kidnapped and spirited away to the capital while he was in Dahab, covering the aftermath of Monday s suicide bombings that killed at least 24 people. Al-Jazeera reported that an attack had targeted policemen in the town of Belbeis, northeast of Cairo. Other media said a police station had been fired on, quoting witnesses and security sources, but the interior ministry later issued a denial, which Al-Jazeera also carried. The Qatar-based channel also aired a political show Wednesday evening which was critical of the government s treatment of two judges who went before a disciplinary board Thursday for accusing the judiciary of helping to rig parliamentary elections. Al-Jazeera is the most widely watched pan-Arab news channel and has given air time to reformist Egyptian judges who have criticized the government and are demanding more independence from the executive. It has also aired a program on revolutionary poets such as leftist author Ahmed Fuad Najm, whose works are sometimes used a rallying for movements opposed to the Egyptian government. Five other Egyptian journalists were detained over the past 24 hours in connection with demonstrations of support for the two judges facing disciplinary action. The journalists syndicate complained that the arrests were against the law and rights groups have condemned Abdel Ghani s detention. We consider the arrest of the head of the Al-Jazeera bureau to be an attack on press freedom in Egypt, renowned columnist Gamal Fahmy told AFP. For years the journalists union has been demanding the abolition of laws restricting press freedom, including the legislation under which Mr. Abdel Ghani faces prosecution. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights also demanded the journalist s immediate release, saying it showed the extent of the deterioration of the conditions of freedom of opinion and expression. The Arab Committee for the Defense of Journalists issued a similar call, saying the manner in which Abdel Ghani was kidnapped is violation of basic human rights principles.
Al Jazeera has been banned from several Arab countries due to its hard-hitting, and sometimes controversial, coverage of events in a region accustomed to state-controlled media. At least two of its correspondents are under arrest. The most prominent is Tayseer Alouni, who was convicted by a Spanish court of allegedly conspiring with Al-Qaeda militants. AFP
