CAIRO (Agencies)
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday pardoned an outspoken editor sentenced to a two-month jail term last month for his newspaper's reporting on the president's health, state-run MENA news agency reported.
An appeals court's decision last month to jail Ibrahim Eissa, editor-in-chief of the independent daily al-Dostour, provoked widespread criticism from media activists.
MENA said Mubarak issued the decree "to affirm his solicitude for freedom of opinion and expression and to ensure that there is be no feud between him as president and any Egyptian citizen."
At least seven journalists were sentenced in September 2007 to up to two years in prison on charges ranging from misquoting the justice minister to spreading rumors about the 80-year-old president.
The harsh treatment of the Egyptian media led the United States last year to voice "deep concern" at the convictions, a criticism rejected by Egypt as "unacceptable interference" by its ally.
Eissa was accused of harming the economy after his paper's reports allegedly caused foreign investors to withdraw investments worth more than 350 million dollars from Egypt's stock exchange.
Rights organizations were critical of the sentence, one of several in recent years that have come close to putting prominent journalists behind bars for publishing offences |
