Media News - Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Arab journalists to launch press watchdog

Journalists from five Arab countries are to launch a media watchdog group in reaction to what they call increased restrictions on press workers in the region, its founders said Tuesday. Twenty reporters from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Morocco, and Libya will launch the Cairo-based Free Media Workers Union in June, an initiative supported by Egyptian-American sociologist and human rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim. Ibrahim, who was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2001 for 'tarnishing the image of Egypt,' will offer the group logistical assistance from his Ibn Khaldun research centre. He served a year in jail before being freed on appeal. The watchdog body aims to 'chart and expose violations of freedom of expression ... and contribute to the current efforts to abolish legislation that restricts freedom,' founder Yussef Abdel Latif, a journalist for the London-based paper Al Moraqeb Al Arabi, told reporters. The group, which is funded by the current members, will also offer support and financial assistance to the families of jailed reporters. (AFP via Middle East Times)

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