Thirty-four organizations representing freedom of press, speech and journalism have condemned Egypt’s arrest and disappearance of Egyptian journalists and cartoonist Ashraf Omar and are calling for their immediate release. They note that there are 11 other journalists that have been detained for over two years without trial.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), along with 33 rights and press freedom organizations, condemns the recent arrests and enforced disappearance of four Egyptian journalists – Ashraf Omar, Khaled Mamdouh, Ramadan Gouida, and Yasser Abu Al-Ela – and calls for their immediate release. The undersigned also call on Egyptian authorities to drop all charges against the journalists, stop targeting them for their work, end the practice of concealing the status or location of those in custody, swiftly and transparently investigate allegations that at least two of the journalists were tortured or treated inhumanely, and hold those responsible to account.
The signatories are:
1 – ARTICLE 19
2 – Artists at Risk Connection (ARC)
3 – Association of Canadian Cartoonists
4 – Australian Cartoonists Association
5 – Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
6 – Cartoon Movement
7 – Cartooning for Peace
8 – Cartoonists Rights Network International
9 – Committee for Justice
10 – Committee to Protect Journalists
11 – Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms
12 – Egyptian Front for Human Rights
13 – Egyptian Human Rights Forum (EHRF)
14 – Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)
15 – Egyptian Observatory for Journalism and Media (EOJM)
16 – EuroMed Rights
17 – European Cartoon Award
18 – Forum for Humor and the Law
19 – Freedom Cartoonists Foundation
20 – Freemuse
21 – Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
22 – HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement
23 – Human Rights First
24 – IFEX
25 – Index on Censorship
26 – Khartoon Magazine (khartoonmag.com)
27 – Law and democracy support foundation
28 – Middle East Democracy Center
29 – Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation (PCO)
30 – Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
31 – Samir Kassir Foundation
32 – The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP)
33 – Toons Mag
34 – World War 3 Illustrated