The need to know

By Salama A Salama

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In a recent television interview, the assistant interior minister commented on some of the points raised by the National Council on Human Rights (NCHR) concerning Egyptian prisons. Despite repeated allegations of torture, and claims that some detainees are held without trial while others remain in custody after serving their full sentences, the official was adamant that Egyptian prisoners are treated humanely. Pressed to disclose the number of detainees, he put the figure at below 4,000. The estimate wildly contradicts the figures mentioned by rights groups and by the NCHR, a somewhat surprising anomaly given that it shouldn't be all that difficult to know the exact number of people held in Egyptian prisons.

For some reason Egyptian law does not seem to recognise the public's right to such information though human rights treaties, willingly signed by Egypt, call for such information to be disclosed. Egypt is under international legal obligation to incorporate disclosure in its civil penal code yet this hasn't happened, one result of which is that we are left to guess how many people are held in our prisons and for what crimes. Nor do we have any way of discovering the fate of many people who disappear in suspicious circumstances.

Let me make a quick comparison with the US in order to substantiate my argument that citizens have a right to information as long as it does not conflict with national security or violate the privacy of others. A federal court order recently forced the Pentagon to disclose the names and nationalities of the 558 people who have been held incognito in Guantanamo. The US government had long refused to release the names of the Guantanamo detainees or the reasons for which they had been incarcerated. Following a legal battle that lasted for nearly four years the federal court ended this situation, which constituted a serious human rights violation, effectively ruling against the administration's argument that these people were "enemy combatants" and as such not entitled to the protection international law offers prisoners of war.

The AP news agency and Human Rights Watch had joined several other human rights groups to file lawsuits against the US government, arguing that the right to information, and its publication, is a basic human right.

Egypt is currently in the process of amending its press laws and abolishing custodial sentences for publication offences. Reforms of the press law should also be supplemented by freedom of information legislation. The public has a legitimate and pressing need for information and without laws guaranteeing disclosure both the press and the public are at a disadvantage.

Most of the publishing offences for which journalists have been convicted are a result of the lack of information. We live in a country where corruption is rampant and yet many criminals escape punishment simply because information is withheld from the public. By the time the cases arrive in court, if indeed they ever do, most of the evidence has been tampered with or destroyed.

It is possible to argue that the Guantanamo ruling was inadequate and that some of the inmates are still being detained unfairly, but it is a step in the right direction. The US authorities have also argued that deporting some of the Guantanamo inmates to their countries of origin may endanger their lives, which may also be true. Perhaps some inmates really do prefer to stay in US custody rather than being deported. But this, too, is a point that deserves to be debated by the public and the press. Access to information is not just the basis of freedom of expression, it is the foundation on which human rights are built.