On 11 February, the Press Syndicate’s Freedoms Committee, in cooperation with a number of political parties and NGOs, will host a conference under the title of “Freedom Day”.
The conference commemorates the day Hosni Mubarak stepped down from power, and will see the formation of the Front to Defend Freedoms. The status of freedoms in Egypt and violations against citizens from state actors will be discussed and debated, as political parties and rights organisations seek to unify.
The conference will tackle methods of dealing with the current situation in Egypt, according to a press release from the syndicate.
The parties that are set to take part in Thursday’s conference include: the Egyptian Social Democratic Party (ESDP), Al-Dostour, Socialist Populist Alliance, Al-Karama, Al-Adl, and Bread and Freedom parties, among others.
The Press Syndicate issued Sunday its first annual report reviewing violations against journalists, with head of the Freedoms Committee Khaled El-Balshy confirming that “more than 50% of violations are committed by the Ministry of Interior”.
Leaders of professional syndicates will also attend the conference in a bid to unify efforts. The Doctors’ Syndicate has been caught in a standoff against the Ministry of Interior after two doctors alleged that they had been insulted, assaulted, and threatened last week, as a group of police officers attacked them at a Cairo hospital.
