Syria prevents journalist Magdy Mehana from accessing the country

EOHR is deeply concerned at the decision of the Syrian authorities to prevent journalist, Mr Magdy Mehana, from entering the country proper on December 16, 2002.  Mr Mehana, a former Editor In Chief of El Wafd and a journalist for
Rose el Yousef , was required to wait 9 hours at Damascus airport where he was told that he would be deported to Baghdad unless he had reservation to go back to Egypt.

Mr. Mehana had arrived at Damascus airport from Baghdad where he had performed interviews with Iraqi officials concerning the international weapons inspection committee. It is suggested that the restriction on Mr Mehana’s  freedom of movement was due to his publications, some of which are  critical of  the Syrian authorities. In a letter to EOHR, Mr Mehana wrote: “ I was prevented from accessing Syria because of my writings …there could be no other reason”.  

EOHR considers the actions of the Syrian authorities to be a direct violation of the freedom of opinion and expression and a threat to the freedom of the press. It restricts the freedom of movement of journalists if they criticize the authorities. In this regard EOHR urges all the Arab governments to enshrine legislation protecting freedom of opinion and stop penalizing journalists for their published opinions. EOHR demands the practice of maintaining lists of journalists banned from accessing countries be stopped. EOHR calls upon the Arab Journalists Union to intervene in order to promote theses demands.