> Dear Interface readers and supporters - we urgently need you to lend
> your voice to an Interface author & his colleagues.
>
>
> Some weeks ago, while preparing an article for the upcoming Arab
> Spring issue of Interface, an Australian independent journalist in
> Egypt, Austin Mackell was arrested and charged. He had travelled to
> Mahalla to interview a labour activist, well respected union organiser
> Kamal el-Fayoumi. His translator Ms Ailya Alwi (Egyptian), and a
> postgraduate student Derek Ludovici (American) who was travelling with
> him, were also arrested. The charges are that they offered to pay
> children to throw rocks at a police station, and they are advised they
> face 5-7 years jail.
>
> Interface wishes to highlight the importance of journalists and
> researchers being allowed to investigate and report on events in
> Egypt. A free press, and fearless academic work, is crucial to
> democracy. It is important foreigners and Egyptians alike are allowed
> freedom of association and freedom of expression.
>
> International and Egyptian writers, journalists and academics have
> been essential in bringing to light some of the worst abuses of the
> former Egyptian dictatorship under Hosni Mubarak as well as abuses
> occurring under the current Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The
> charges represent another escalation of the harassment and
> intimidation of international journalists in Egypt, and Interface
> condemns these actions.
>
> You can read the full statement from Interface here:
> http://www.interfacejournal.net/
>
> Please sign up to the Open Letter about Austin and his colleagues
> here:
> http://www.change.org/petitions/australian-prime-minister-act-on-austin-mackell-s-matter-now
>
> Best wishes
>
> Elizabeth Humphrys . [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
> /Interface: A journal for and about social movements/
>
> Co-Editor (Oceania and South-East Asia)
>
> http://interfacejournal.net
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