Ibrahim Eissa wins Gebran Tueni Award

Al Dostour editor Ibrahim Eissa has won the Gerbran Tueni award, a prize given by the World Association of Newspapers that honours an editor or publisher in the Arab region.

Eissa spent much of the last year locked in legal battles after he was given a custodial sentence when his newspaper reported on rumours of Egyptian president Mubarak’s ill health. He was pardoned in October.

Egypt’s witch-hunt

Ibrahim EissaJournalist Ibrahim Eissa faces a prison sentence for his criticism of President Mubarak. The government’s intention to intimidate the free press is all too clear, writes Amira Howeidy

On 26 March a Cairo court sentenced Ibrahim Eissa, editor of the independent Al Dostour newspaper, to six months in prison for publishing a series of articles on 79-year-old president Hosni Mubarak’s health.

Eissa has the right to appeal the ruling, which he probably will, knowing all too well that he’ll end up in one of Egypt’s notorious prisons anyway.

This 42-year-old critic of the Mubarak regime still faces at least four other court cases concerning articles deemed ‘insulting’ to figures in the ruling party and, again, the president.

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