fotokon/iStock/Thinkstock(CAIRO) — Three journalists were sentenced to three years in prison in Egypt on Saturday, in what their employer is calling “another deliberate attack on press freedom.”
Al Jazeera journalists Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy will return to prison after the ruling and colleague Peter Greste was sentenced though he had been deported earlier this year. “It is a dark day for the Egyptian judiciary,” Al Jazeera’s statement continued. “Rather than defend liberties and a free and fair media, they have compromised their independence for political reasons.”
The media network called for the release of its journalists, as well as urging “everyone to continue the fight for freedom of speech, for the right of people to be informed and for the right of journalists around the world to be able to do their job.”
The men, according to Al Jazeera News, had been accused of not registering with Egypt’s journalist syndicate, bringing equipment into the country without approval, broadcasting false information and using a hotel as a broadcasting point without permission.
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