Dozens of lawyers protested in front of the High Court on Thursday to denounce alleged attempts to censor and influence the media and what they called “the brotherhoodization” of the press.
During the protest organized by the Lawyers Syndicate’s Freedoms Committee, the demonstrators released a statement that alleged “there is a fierce attack on the freedom of the press led by the Muslim Brotherhood to silence all voices opposing them and to control the country.”
They will accept nothing less than a civil state, the protesters declared, stressing the importance of uniting political forces to confront any attacks on freedom.
“No one in the country is above criticism, and it is the right of any citizen to criticize anyone in the state,” demonstrators said.
Penalties for insulting the president came under particularly harsh criticism from the protesters, who claimed such laws do not exist in democratic countries. They raised banners bearing the phrase, “For the freedom of the press and the media and for a free country and a civil state,” while chanting, “A lawyer and journalist, one hand,” “Bread, freedom, social justice,” and “Down with the rule of the Supreme Guide [of the Muslim Brotherhood].”
Some passers-by were angered by the slogans chanted against the Muslim Brotherhood and President Mohamed Morsy. They clashed verbally with the protesters and began chanting slogans in favor of the president and the Brotherhood.
The lawyers’ protest also demanded the immediate release of Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud and Nasser Salem al-Hafy, lawyers and members of the political bureau of the Freedom and Justice Party who were referred to criminal court on charges of insulting the Supreme Constitutional Court.
Maqsoud and Hafy allegedly accused the SCC of falsifying the ruling that dissolved the People’s Assembly on 14 June.
Ahmed Yehya, one of the organizers of the protest, said that the charges against Abdel Maqsoud and Hafy are unacceptable and fall within the suppression of freedom of opinion. Any citizen has the right to express their opinion regarding anything, even if it is a criticism against the constitutional court or the head of the state, he declared.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
