UN / AL JAZEERA JOURNALISTS

STORY: UN / AL JAZEERA JOURNALISTS
TRT: 1:48
SOURCE: UNIFEED-UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS

DATELINE: 25 JUNE 2014, NEW YORK CITY

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide shot, UNCA press room
2. Various shots, imprisoned Al Jazeera journalists on screen
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Kate O’Brien, President, Al Jazeera America:
“The conversation is no longer about the daily news in Cairo, the protests, the demonstrations. The world has changed this conversation, it is now a global call for press freedom a collective cry for the basic right for the freedom of speech everywhere.”
4. Cutaway, audience
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Kate O’Brien, President, Al Jazeera America:
“It has been 179 days since Mohamed, Peter and Baher were arrested. It is time for them to come home to their families, to their colleagues and to their all important work.”
6. Cutaway, audience
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Mahoney, Deputy Director, Committee to Protect Journalists:
“As we speak there are 14 journalists in jail in Egypt including the three Al Jazeera journalists that we are here to help. That makes Egypton our reckoning, the biggest jailor of jounalists in the Arab world. More than Syria where there are about 12. That’s not a record that any country should be happy to have.’
8. Cutaway, Richard Roth CNN
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Mahoney, Deputy Director, Committee to Protect Journalists:
“We would urge the Egyptian authorities to work to there release and President Assisi has it within his power to free them.”
10. Cutaway, audience
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Osama Abdelkhalek Mahmoud, Deputy Permanent Representative of Egypt to the United Nations:
“The judge has seen the evidence and we are not in a position to assess whether that evidence is really enough or not or faulty or accurate so I would like to refrain from commenting.”
12. SOUND UP (English) Tony Harris, Anchor, Al Jazeera:
“For guys and their families, I just trying to get a sense of , kind of the time frame, moving forward for the appeals process. Could you give us a sense of that?”
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Osama Abdelkhalek Mahmoud, Deputy Permanent Representative of Egypt to the United Nations:
“We do not have a specific time frame I cannot tell you it will be done in three for four months.”
14. Close up, sign, “JOURNALISM IS NOT A CIRME”


STORYLINE:

The United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) held an emergency town hall meeting today (25 June) to discuss the imprisonment of three Al Jazeera journalists in Egypt.

Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were arrested on 29 December following their coverage of the aftermath of the army's removal of former president Mohamed Morsi.

In the audience were journalists, UN staff and representatives from UN missions, including Egypt.

Al Jazeera America’s president Kate O’Brien said the news coming out of Egypt has now changed.

SOUNDBITE (English) Kate O’Brien, President, Al Jazeera America:
“The conversation is no longer about the daily news in Cairo, the protests, the demonstrations. The world has changed this conversation, it is now a global call for press freedom a collective cry for the basic right for the freedom of speech everywhere.”

And she said it was time to bring them home.

SOUNDBITE (English) Kate O’Brien, President, Al Jazeera America:
“It has been 179 days since Mohamed, Peter and Bahar were arrested. It is time for them to come home to their families, to their colleagues and to their all important work.”

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), over 200 journalists are imprisoned around the world.

The CPJ’s deputy- director Robert Mahoney said that press freedom in Egypt was “rapidly deteriorating” and that since the ousting of former president Mohamed Morsi some 67 journalists have been imprisoned.

SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Mahoney, Deputy Director, Committee to Protect Journalists:
“As we speak there are 14 journalists in jail in Egypt including the three Al Jazeera journalists that we are here to help. That makes Egypt on our reckoning, the biggest jailor of journalists in the Arab world. More than Syria where there are about 12. That’s not a record that any country should be happy to have.’

Mahoney believes Egypt will respond and that current president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi can expedite this process.

SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Mahoney, Deputy Director, Committee to Protect Journalists:
“We would urge the Egyptian authorities to work to their release and President Assisi has it within his power to free them.”

Egypt’s Deputy-Director Osama Abdelkhalek Mahmoud said that Egypt fully respected the judicial process and that currently there are 1200 active journalists in Egypt and “they weren’t all arrested.”

Al Jazeera anchor Tony Harris asked the ambassador about the length of time for the appeals process. He said “we do not have a specific time frame. I cannot tell you it will be done in three for four months.”

Two of the Al Jazeera journalists were sentenced to seven years and one to ten years. Despite pleas to release them from foreign leaders around the world, Egypt’s president refuses to pardon them.

On Monday Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed shock and deep concern over the lengthy jail terms handed down to the journalists, as well as 11 others tried in absentia.

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the Resolution on Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity at its 68th Session on 18 December 2013. The resolution “condemns unequivocally all attacks and violence against journalists and media workers, such as torture, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention, as well as intimidation and harassment in both conflict and non-conflict situations”.

It is the first time the UNGA has adopted a resolution directly addressing the safety of journalists and the issue of impunity.