Mahmoud Abu Zeid, also known as Shawkan (born c. 1987), an
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
ian photojournalist, was arrested for taking photos of the
Rabaa massacre in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
and imprisoned during the
post-coup unrest by the Egyptian government since 2013, where he faced the death penalty.
By September 2018 he had been sentenced to a five-year prison term and was expected to be released shortly thereafter;
he was released on 4 March 2019.
Personal life
In 2016 Zeid has
Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection people often have mild or no symptoms. Occasionally a fever, dark urine, a ...
, which he was diagnosed for while in prison. He has also been diagnosed with malnourishment, anemia, and depression, as well as lacking proper medical care.
Career
Zeid is a freelance photojournalist.[ He started working for ]Demotix
Demotix was a photo agency that enabled freelance photojournalists to license their photos to mainstream media organisations, charities, and stock image buyers.
Initially conceived as a free speech platform to allow local journalists to report t ...
in April 2010. In the wake of the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état
The 2013 Egyptian coup d'etat took place on 3 July 2013. Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led a coalition to remove the democratically elected
President of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, from power and suspended the Egyptian constitut ...
, Zeid took photographs of protests against General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi; (born 19 November 1954) is an Egyptian politician and retired military officer who has served as the sixth and current president of Egypt since 2014. Before retiring as a general in the Egyptian mil ...
.[ His work has been published in '']Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'', '' The Sun'', ''Die Zeit
''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles.
History
The ...
'', ''Bild
''Bild'' (or ''Bild-Zeitung'', ; ) is a German tabloid newspaper published by Axel Springer SE. The paper is published from Monday to Saturday; on Sundays, its sister paper ''Bild am Sonntag'' ("''Bild on Sunday''") is published instead, which ...
'' and on the ''BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
'' website.[ His work has also been reproduced by ]Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
, Global Voices
Global Voices is an international community of writers, bloggers and digital activists that aim to translate and report on what is being said in citizen media worldwide. It is a non-profit project started at the Berkman Center for Internet and S ...
, IFEX, Index on Censorship
Index on Censorship is an organization campaigning for freedom of expression, which produces a quarterly magazine of the same name from London. It is directed by the non-profit-making Writers and Scholars International, Ltd (WSI) in association w ...
and Open Democracy
openDemocracy is an independent media platform and news website based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2001, openDemocracy states that through reporting and analysis of social and political issues, they seek to "challenge power and encourage de ...
.[
]
Arrest
Zeid was arrested along with two other journalists while he was taking pictures of the 14 August 2013 Rabaa massacre.
The two other non-Egyptian journalists were released but Shawkan remained in prison for more than two years without charges. His case, along with 700 other defendants, is known as the "Rabaa sit-in dispersal". Shawkan's camera has not been used as evidence he is a photojournalist, which makes his status as a prisoner ambiguous.
By November 2015, he had been in "pre-trial detention for over two years". On 26 March 2016, he was charged with six offences, and, as a result, faced the death penalty.[
On 8 September, an Egyptian court handed him a 5-year jail sentence which could see him leave prison "within a few days," said his lawyer Karim Abdelrady.] Abdelrady added that the sentence was nevertheless "unfair because he (Shawkan) was only doing his job".
Shawkan was released early on 4 March 2019, 6 years after he was arrested.[
]
Context
Egypt was in 2015 among the top ten countries of world in the imprisonment of journalists with 12. Shawkan is being held in Egypt's Tora Prison
Tora Prison ( arz, سجن طره '; ) is an Egyptian prison complex for criminal and political detainees, located in Tora, Egypt. The complex is situated in front of the Tora El Balad metro station. The main buildings in the Tora Prison complex ar ...
. As of end of 2015, China had the largest number of imprisoned journalists for the past two years with the number of 49 journalists.
Reactions
There is an international campaign for Shawkan's release using the hashtag #FreeShawkan and several press freedom organizations including the Rory Peck Trust
The Rory Peck Trust is an international NGO that supports freelance journalists and their families in crisis. Based in London, UK, it provides practical assistance and support to freelance journalists worldwide, to raise their profile, promote th ...
and the Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, New York, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journa ...
have called for his release, while Amnesty International has started an online petition for it. In February 2015, the Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, New York, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journa ...
met with officials in Egypt to call for his release. Shawkan is a featured case in the Press Uncuffed
Press Uncuffed, founded in 2015 by the ''Washington Post''s Dana Priest and several of her students at the University of Maryland in collaboration with the Committee to Protect Journalists, is a campaign to help free imprisoned journalists through ...
campaign, led by Dana Priest
Dana Louise Priest (born May 23, 1957) is an American journalist, writer and teacher. She has worked for nearly 30 years for the ''The Washington Post, Washington Post'' and became the third John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Public Affairs Jo ...
and her students at the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...
in collaboration with the Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, New York, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journa ...
to help free imprisoned journalists throughout the world by selling bracelets bearing their names and raising awareness about their cases. In 2016 the Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, New York, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journa ...
organized an exhibit of Shawkan's work at the Bronx Documentary Center.
In 2018, UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
awarded Press Freedom Prize for his contributions and marked its detention as Human Rights abuse.
According to Jason Stern, a senior Middle East and North Africa research associate for the CPJ, Shawkan should have never been arrested for performing his job duties. In a letter published by news outlets such as National Public Radio and Deutsche Welle, as well as human rights groups, Shawkan wrote about how journalism in Egypt has become a crime. There are 13 journalists who are facing a life sentence or death.
Shawkan's brother, Mohammed, spoke on his brother's imprisonment, "For a year, my brother is being held without charges in prison, he was detained during the dispersal of Rabaa and his detention has been renewed since then. My brother never held a gun, he was simply doing his job, but unfortunately he was a freelancer, so he had no institution to back him or offer any support."
Exhibits
* "The Price of Photography: Shawkan, 1,000+ Days Behind Bars," at the Bronx Documentary Center.
Awards
* 2016, John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award
The National Press Club is a professional organization and social community in Washington, D.C. for journalists and communications professionals. It hosts public and private gatherings with invited speakers from public life. The club also offers e ...
. A statement from the National Press Club said, "Shawkan's case exemplifies the draconian way Egyptian authorities have cracked down on the press. Egypt is one of the world’s top jailers of news professionals, and the situation there is not improving."
* 2016, International Press Freedom Award, from the Committee to Protect Journalists.
* 2018, UNESCO/Guillermo Cano Press Freedom Prize. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions has qualified his arrest and detention as arbitrary and contrary to the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. “The choice of Mahmoud Abu Zeid pays tribute to his courage, resistance and commitment to freedom of expression,” said Maria Ressa, President of the Jury. https://en.unesco.org/news/egyptian-photojournalist-mahmoud-abu-zeid-aka-shawkan-receive-2018-unescoguillermo-cano-press
Foundations
The Free Shawkan Foundation was founded by Shawkan’s lifelong best friend Ahmed Abu Seif in the United States to advocate for Shawkan and other imprisoned journalists worldwide.
See also
* Human rights in Egypt
Human rights in Egypt are guaranteed by the Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt under the various articles of Chapter 3. The country is also a party to numerous international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on ...
References
External links
Free Shawkan Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zeid, Mahmoud Abu
Living people
1980s births
Year of birth uncertain
Egyptian photojournalists
Egyptian prisoners and detainees
Recipients of John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award