Mohamed Fawzy was abandoned by Al Jazeera and left with the impossible decision of returning to Egypt and going to jail or applying for political asylum and never returning to his home country. Fawzy tells Egyptian Streets of Al Jazeera’s string of negligence in 2013 and how the network “never really cared” about its jailed journalists. Al Jazeera launched a campaign calling for the release of its staff members – Australian national Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian nationals Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fawzy – after they were arrested on December 29, 2013. The network announced it hoped this grassroots campaign, circulated on social media using the hashtag #FreeAJStaff, would champion press freedom and protect its journalists — a claim that some, including Fahmy, argued to be false. The story of the three journalists dominated global headlines until they were released and pardoned 400 days later. The case brought against them came to be known as the “Marriott Cell” case. Fawzy, on the other hand, had been arrested and released before he fled to Qatar and escaped the entire ordeal. Nevertheless, he was tried in absentia and sentenced on June 23, 2014…
‘Al Jazeera Never Cared For Us’: Abandoned Egyptian Journalist Exposes Negligence
August 2, 2016
