By Magdalene Mukami
NAIROBI
A group of foreign and local reporters on Tuesday interrupted a reception at the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)'s Nairobi office – held for a Kenyan-Egyptian business forum – to protest the ongoing detention by Egypt of three of their colleagues.
Holding placards bearing the words "FREEAJSTAFF" ("Free Al Jazeera Staff), the reporters joined hands to protest the ongoing detention in Egypt of Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, three journalists from Qatar's Al Jazeera news network.
The trio has languished in an Egyptian prison for more than one year on charges that they had "abetted terrorists."
"The protest is about Egypt, not the UN," Gabe Joslow, head of the Foreign Correspondents Association of East Africa (FCAEA), told The Anadolu Agency.
"We wanted to send a message to the Egyptian government that we want our colleagues freed," he said.
"We got the attention of so many people, including members of the delegation from Egypt," Joslow added, describing Tuesday's protest as both "peaceful and successful."
Attending the reception was an Egyptian delegation led by Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.
The event was also attended by Sahle-Work Zwede, director-general of the UN's Nairobi office; UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner; and Sunu Soemarno, Indonesian ambassador and chairman of the committee of permanent UNEP representatives.
Earlier this month, an Egyptian court ordered the three detained journalists to be retried.
Al Jazeera had called for a speedy retrial for the journalists, saying the appeal process could take between 12 and 18 months before a verdict could be delivered.
Last summer, the three journalists were convicted of "broadcasting false news" and "threatening Egypt's national security."
Egyptian-Canadian Fahmi and Australian Greste were both sentenced to seven years behind bars, while Mohamed, an Egyptian national, was slapped with a ten-year jail term.
Three other foreign Al Jazeera correspondents – two Britons and one Dutch national – were each sentenced in absentia to ten years in jail.
Greste, Fahmi and Mohamed have been held by Egyptian authorities since their arrest in December 2013 from a Cairo hotel.
A number of western governments had called for the release of the reporters amid an international solidarity campaign launched by Al Jazeera to demand their release.
Delivering message
Joslow, the FCAEA chairman, said the protest was necessary.
"I had tried to talk to the Egyptian foreign minister earlier… but he really didn't want to talk about this," he told AA. "So we had to go on with the protest."
Foreign Minister Shoukry, for his part, thanked the reporters for disrupting the event, saying they were welcome to stay because they were journalists.
Shoukry is currently on a visit to Nairobi to attend a meeting of the Kenyan-Egyptian business forum.
He will also address the 129th session of the UN Committee of Permanent Representatives at the UN's Nairobi office.
Egypt is seeking a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for 2016 and 2017.
Jessica Archer, a local reporter who joined Tuesday's protest, said she was particularly angered by the fact that Egypt sought a non-permanent council seat.
"We all have freedom of speech; Egypt should lead by example if it wants a seat at the United Nations," she told AA.
"Holding journalists limits this freedom," Archer insisted.
"We had every right to come today," she added. "We have not broken any laws because we were invited as journalists by the UN press center."
"We didn't have to come; we only wanted the minister [Shoukry] to assure us that the issue was still being looked into," Archer told AA.
