‘Al Jazeera never cared for us’: abandoned Egyptian journalist exposes negligence

As far as the Egyptian government is concerned, the Qatar-based Al Jazeera TV news channel is a mouthpiece for the banned Muslim Brotherhood including Hamas (a view shared by right wing groups in the West).

Mohamed Fawzy was abandoned by Al Jazeera and left with the impossible decision of returning to Egypt and going to jail or applying for political asylum and never returning to his home country. Fawzy tells of Al Jazeera’s string of negligence in 2013 and how the network “never really cared” about its jailed journalists.

Al Jazeera launched a campaign calling for the release of its staff members – Australian national Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian nationals Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fawzy – after they were arrested on 29 December 2013.

The network announced it hoped this grassroots campaign, circulated on social media using the hashtag #FreeAJStaff, would champion press freedom and protect its journalists — a claim that some, including Fahmy, argued to be false.

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