Group Of Egyptian Journalists Launch Campaign Against Protest Law

A group of Egyptian journalists have set up a new movement campaigning against a law issued last year that tightly restricts street demonstrations.

The group, Journalists against the Protest Law, has called for a three-day hunger strike and a sit-in to begin on Saturday at the Journalists Syndicate in downtown Cairo, in solidarity with those detained in breaches of the widely criticised law.

“The group is aimed to protest against the law in general and raise awareness about its hazards to journalists,” Khaled El-Balshy, writer and syndicate member, told Ahram Online.

The law, passed in late 2013, bans protests and public demonstrations that have not received prior police permission

The planned action, joined by at least five journalists so far, will take place in rotation between the journalists, and the group will decide later on the next moves, El-Balshy added

Sixty prisoners are on hunger strike in Egyptian jails as part of a campaign to protest what they say are politicised detentions and sentences, and 70 supporters and activists have joined them outside prison, according to the Freedom for the Brave campaign.

Many of the prisoners, including prominent activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah who is among prisoners on hunger strike, have been given substantial prison sentences for breaking the protest law.

Several Egyptian political parties have also said they will temporarily join an ongoing hunger strike by activists both inside and outside prison which demands the release of those detained in what they say is a bid to curtail freedoms won during the 2011 revolution.

Source : Ahram online