By Raynald C Rivera
DOHA: Baher Mohamed, one of the three Al Jazeera journalists imprisoned in Egypt, has vowed to continue fighting to free unjustly imprisoned journalists around the world, on his emotional return to Doha after spending 433 days in jail.
Baher was unable to control his tears as he was welcomed in Al Jazeera English newsroom yesterday, with applause by colleagues he called his “family” and “backbone” throughout his long ordeal in his homeland.
He and colleagues Peter Greste and Mohamed Fahmy were sentenced in June last year for allegedly reporting false news and supporting a terrorist group. This February, Greste was deported to Australia after a presidential decree and Baher and Fahmy were released last month after a presidential pardon.
Thanking everyone for the global campaign to release “Al Jazeera three”, Baher urged to carry on the campaign “to release every single journalist behind bars all over the world.” “Thank you so much but we have to continue. I hope one day we would be able to celebrate the freedom of every journalist all over the world. We will continue that because we are not only journalists, we are advocates of press freedom. Let’s continue to do so. Let’s not forget our colleagues behind bars,” he said. He told a press conference that he wanted to start campaigning as soon as possible, especially for Al Jazeera colleagues sentenced in absentia. “I want to fight for them to clear their names,” he said, adding he intended to fight for unlawfully imprisoned journalists “because they deserve to be free”.
“They deserve to be with their families because I know how it feels to be away from loved ones,” Baher said.
During incarceration, he had missed the birth of his son Haroon in August last year and was separated from his young family and loved ones.
He revealed concrete steps he and his two colleagues plan to take, including creating a charter for the protection of journalists around the world who facing serious threats as they constantly become targets.
“I’m going to ask every journalist around the world to draft his idea because I want us to do it. I don’t want organisations to do it because it’s taking too much time for them to do something for us,” he said, adding the charter will be submitted to the United Nations.
After everything that happened, he said he would still continue his work as a journalist. “I will not stop being a journalist but for the time being I need a break. It’s been so long being under pressure, then I would start planning for my future.” Despite his ordeal in his own country, he said he loves Egypt and plans to return “because Egypt is my country and I love my country. I have friends, relatives and loved ones in Egypt so I will be returning to Egypt for sure and nothing will stop me from going back to Egypt”.
Asked whether he has intentions to sue the Egyptian regime, he said, “No, this fight is for press freedom and press freedom is something global so I’m not going to sue anybody.”
In his message to journalists in jail, he said “Be strong because you are fighting for a big cause and it is not easy, but then you are not forgotten.”
Giles Trendel, Acting Managing Director, Al Jazeera English, presented Baher with the Royal Television Society Award for contribution to TV journalism — an honour he was unable to receive early this year because he was in jail. Greste and Fahmy were also given the same award by London-based RTS.
Trendel praised Baher’s “integrity, credibility, dignity and humility in the face of what was a personal assault on his personal freedom and as journalist on the assault on media freedom.”
The Peninsula
