Egypt: Journalism on trial

A Listening Post special on the jailing of three Al Jazeera staff and the verdict's impact on press freedom.


In Kafka's novel, the story begins: "Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., because he had done nothing wrong, but one day he was arrested."

This week, a trial took place that had something of the Kafka-esque.

In a 20-month-long ordeal, and after months of extended pre-trial imprisonment, repeated postponements, charges that lack convincing evidence and hearings fraught with complexity - three Al Jazeera journalists were sentenced to three years in prison by a Cairo court.

Evidence including footage of a trotting horse from Sky News Arabia; holiday snaps; a pop music video, and like the fictive account of Josef K - a bank employee, who is unexpectedly arrested one morning for an unspecified crime, the story of the 'Al Jazeera 3' makes for uncomfortable reading