Abuses revealed

At the end of a two-day meeting of the AJU's Freedoms Committee in Beirut, Chairman Ibrahim Nafie read out a statement which decried "tightening sanctions on journalists, including jail sentences, increased financial penalties and mounting manifestations of intellectual terrorism by various forces and trends."

Nafie, editor-in-chief and chairman of the board of Al-Ahram, added that press freedom requires a "sound democratic climate that guarantees and safeguards the foundations of freedom and responsibility."

The conference, held under the auspices of the AJU and the Lebanese Journalists Union (LJU), also called for a review of press laws in the Arab world so as to guarantee more freedom and abolish clauses related to imprisonment of journalists convicted of publication offenses.

The statement expressed deep concern over an incident last month when Lebanese President Elias Al-Hrawi slapped Hassan Sabra, editor of the weekly Al-Shiraa magazine during a chance meeting. Hrawi claimed he was angry with Sabra following a series of articles the journalist had written criticising the president.

The incident had threatened to overshadow the conference to which Al-Hrawi was neither invited nor represented. The delegates attending the conference were received by House Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri, but they did not request an audience with Al-Hrawi in a show of solidarity with their Lebanese colleagues.

The AJU's Freedoms Committee will meet again between July 27 and 30 in Alexandria and is expected to publish the "appropriate stand on the issue in light of developments."

"We did not visit Al-Hrawi because we did not want to disturb him," said Melhem Karam, the head of the Lebanese Editors' Union. "We have tried more than one way to solve the issue with the president but it remains unresolved."

Al-Hrawi still refuses to apologise for slapping Sabra. Media unions in Lebanon had called on the president to take a "courageous initiative" to resolve the dispute which has enraged journalists in the country and in the Arab world.

Although the LJU and the Editors Union refused to send representatives to a dinner Al-Hrawi hosted for Senegal's First Lady Elizabeth Diouf and did not attend the Tyre festival which the president inaugurated, Karam denied any intention of boycotting Al-Hrawi's official functions.

The Committee also voiced support for Mohamed Jassim Al-Saqar, editor of Kuwait's opposition newspaper Al-Qabas, who was last month sentenced to six months in prison for publishing a cartoon considered insulting to Islam.

Nafie stressed that Arab governments should "accept constructive criticism and deal with journalists in a civilised and fair way."

The conferees discussed court verdicts against a number of journalists in Kuwait, Sudan, Morocco and Egypt. They also expressed solidarity with Algerian journalists, who face assassination by armed militant groups and are prevented from doing their job freely due to government restrictions.

Commenting on the situation in Algeria, Nafie stressed that "terrorism against journalists is the most serious threat to the press. It reflects the intellectual bankruptcy of its perpetrators."

The conferees condemned Israel's oppressive measures against Palestinian journalists and called for the release of those imprisoned in Israeli jails.

Among the Committee's proposed measures to protect Arab press freedoms was the establishment of an independent fund to defend and protect freedoms in the Arab world. The first donation to the fund came from Prime Minister Hariri who offered $250,000 dollars.

"Hariri's donation is the nucleus of an independent fund to work for press freedom in Arab countries," Nafie said.

During the opening ceremony, Lebanon's Information Minister Bassam Sabaa gave cautious support for press freedom. "The government is seeking to modernise media and press laws to further democracy and freedom of speech in Lebanon," he said. "However, democracy does not mean anarchy. We must draw the line between freedom and anarchy and make freedom compatible with law."

But other speakers challenged Sabaa's claims. The AJU secretary-general, Egyptian writer and journalist Salaheddin Hafez, said accusations made by Arab governments against their own journalists are merely lies. "Arab governments talk a lot about the democracies they have established and how the press is abusing freedom of speech, but Arab public opinion simply cannot buy this," he said. "It is time for them to stop lying to themselves and their people."

Hafez added: "We have to redefine the imbalance in relations between governments and the press. The relationship tends to favour the authorities and cripple the press."