When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Egypt

Mother Of Al Jazeera Journalist Appeals To Al-Sisi

Mohamed Fahmy in court last year
Mohamed Fahmy in court last year
Wafa Abdel Hamid Bassiouni

Editor's Note:Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste, who was imprisoned in Cairo for 400 days with two of his colleagues, has been released by Egyptian authorities. The two other Al Jazeera journalists — Baher Mohamed, a producer, and the channel's Cairo bureau chief Mohamed Fahmy — still remain imprisoned in Egypt. The three journalists were sentenced to seven to 10 years on charges of spreading false news and aiding the Muslim Brotherhood. But their convictions were overturned Jan. 1 after the country’s highest court ordered a retrial. The following is an open letter from Mohamed Fahmy's mother to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, appealing for her son's release.

CAIRO — As a mother and an Egyptian citizen, I appeal to you, Mr. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, to pardon my son, the journalist Mohamed Fahmy. He is an innocent man and needs urgent medical treatment for his Hepatitis C and permanent disability in his shoulder. It hurts me to see his health deteriorating while I have little access to him.

He has lost full use of his arm and still needs a series of corrective bone operations that can only improve his arm's range of motion. One can only pray.

My father and uncles have served in the highest ranks of the police force and the military. They have spent their lives defending Egypt.

My son and I responded to your call on June 30 and July 26 in 2013 and joined millions of people in the streets to protest against terrorism and the Muslim Brotherhood.

It breaks my heart that the son of a patriotic family like ours has been wrongfully framed as a terrorist in a trial that produced no evidence to corroborate the accusations against him.

The last time I saw him, he was hopeful that you would release him on the anniversary of the Jan. 25 revolution, knowing his name was submitted to the presidency by the National Council of Human Rights.

He looked forward to freedom and to clearing our family name and reputation. He confided in me saying, "The hardest thing about imprisonment is knowing you are innocent. I will fight to prove my innocence for as long as it takes because freedom is a right, not a privilege. Seeing you, my parents, ailing due to my detention is what hurts the most. Please try to convey to the president that I am a journalist who has never fabricated news and who has never been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. We three journalists — Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste and Baher Mohamed — produced neutral, balanced and well-sourced reports. None of us ever worked for the now-banned Al Jazeera Mubasher channel. We have now been detained for 400 days and we are basically back to being "under investigation," as we were on the day of our arrest on Dec. 29, 2013. It could take months before the retrial begins and possibly a year before we even reach a verdict. It's a price no innocent man should pay."

Mr. President, as a journalist my son never strived to tarnish Egypt's image. It's this Al Jazeera case that now smears Egypt's reputation abroad.

My son had recently appealed to you directly in Western media and insisted he is not an enemy of the state using these words: "I would like to remind Mr. Sisi that in the war he is waging against the cancer of political Islam and its violent offspring, journalists are not enemies but allies. We expose the truth about the terrorism he is striving to defeat."

My son, Mohamed Fahmy, champions his Egyptian and Canadian values and respects the laws and articles of both constitutions, which makes him the respected gentleman and journalist he is today.

Canadian diplomats attended every hearing of the trial before reaching the conclusion that he is an innocent man. And they are ready to receive him in Canada.

On Jan. 1, the appeals court set aside his conviction and overturned the sentence against him, which means he is not guilty of any crime. It is an official judicial recognition that his trial had serious loopholes. And pardoning him now would not interfere with any ongoing judicial process.

Mr. President, you had recognized the historic role of Egyptian women and mothers who took to the streets in your support before the removal of the Muslim Brotherhood and during the elections that followed.

Today, I genuinely hope you can stand beside me, the mother of an innocent man who has spent 400 days in prison. I hope you can use your constitutional rights for humanitarian intervention in order to save an ailing man, my son.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Society

Influencer Union? The Next Labor Rights Battle May Be For Social Media Creators

With the end of the Hollywood writers and actors strikes, the creator economy is the next frontier for organized labor.

​photograph of a smartphone on a selfie stick

Smartphone on a selfie stick

Steve Gale/Unsplash
David Craig and Stuart Cunningham

Hollywood writers and actors recently proved that they could go toe-to-toe with powerful media conglomerates. After going on strike in the summer of 2023, they secured better pay, more transparency from streaming services and safeguards from having their work exploited or replaced by artificial intelligence.

But the future of entertainment extends well beyond Hollywood. Social media creators – otherwise known as influencers, YouTubers, TikTokers, vloggers and live streamers – entertain and inform a vast portion of the planet.

✉️ You can receive our Bon Vivant selection of fresh reads on international culture, food & travel directly in your inbox. Subscribe here.

For the past decade, we’ve mapped the contours and dimensions of the global social media entertainment industry. Unlike their Hollywood counterparts, these creators struggle to be seen as entertainers worthy of basic labor protections.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest