Alwaght-The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says at least nine more journalists are still languishing in Egyptian jails despite the release of two Qatar-funded Al-Jazeera news channel's journalists, as Press TV reported.
The New York-based media committee, which rated Egypt as the third most dangerous country for journalists after Syria and Iraq in 2013, said on Friday that the African country still keeps nine more media workers in prisons.
Meanwhile, officials at Egypt's press syndicate reported that there are at least 15 journalists in the country’s jails on several counts of charges including rioting and belonging to a "terrorist organization."
On Thursday, a court in Cairo ordered the release of two Al-Jazeera journalists, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, who have been arrested for allegedly favoring the military-ousted President Mohamed Morsi in their reports.
According to the court, the two journalists were released after serving more than 400 days behind the bars. The tribunal, however, did not drop the charges leveled against the native journalists.
Fahmy and Mohamed were arrested by Egyptian security forces in December 2013 along with their Australian colleague, Peter Greste, who was released recently.
The three were then put on trial for allegedly reporting in favor of Egypt’s blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood organization and the nation’s first freely-elected president Morsi who was toppled in a coup led by former army chief and current president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi.
