From Odeyele Ayodeji, Abuja
This is Peter Greste, an award winning Aljazeera Journalist, who is now serving 7years jail term in Cairo, Egypt Prison. Frankly speaking, Peter’s offence to my best knowledge is simply that he works for Aljazeera. If you are exposing and exploiting the depth of the negative side of the New Government in Egypt then you are a liar, as well as terrorist’s supporter. And that’s exactly what the charges were: supporting the Brotherhood and spreading false news.
For those who do not know who Peter is, Peter Greste left his native Australia in 1991, to pursue his dream of becoming a foreign correspondent. Since then, he has covered Afghanistan and Central Asia, the Balkans, Iraq, Latin America and now
Africa where he has lived for the past nine years. In 2011, he won a prestigious Peabody Award for a documentary on Somalia – a place that has become a major focus of his work since moving to East-Africa. The region he covers includes the Horn of Africa (Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia and South Sudan); Kenya and Tanzania; and the Great Lakes States (Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo).
Many of us do not know Peter, because he is not a rapper nor an international actor but this is a foreign correspondent that is just doing his Job. Based on an equal absence of evidence, and an equal disregard for facts, two of his Aljazeera colleagues, Egyptian-Canadian Cairo Bureau Chief Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Producer Baher Mohamed, have been jailed for seven (7) and ten 10 years respectively. As his father James Greste rightly said,
“Journalism is not a crime, or you should all be behind bars. It’s as simple as that… he told reporters. Our son Peter is an award- winning journalist, he is not a criminal.”
The question then is, why must these Journalists who in the course of going about their daily activities be unlawfully detained for speaking the truth? The general public as well as peace -loving individuals and human right activists should speak up and out against this kind of inhumane treatment as we never can tell who would be next.
I feel for you and the other Journalists who are unlawfully detained as a result of little or no evidence in their favour in different prisons across the Globe which is not as a result of lack of such evidence but simply because of some high-ranking personalities who would go to any length to cover their sordid dealings. Our Prayers are with you Peter.
JOURNALISM IS NOT A CRIME.
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Odeyele Ayodeji is a young Political activist and political Orator,he graduated from Osun state university,Osogbo.
Sends this piece from Abuja
