Don’t shoot the messenger

Mumbai: An Egyptian court’s sentencing of three Al Jazeera journalists — Peter Greste, Mohammad Fahmy and Baher Mohammed — is perverse. It is like shooting the messenger because the message conveyed by the media is bitter.

Jail terms of 7-10 years for journalists on the grounds that they were supporters of the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood emanates from a bizarre justice system that seems to have prejudged the matter. Egypt, of course, has been far from normal since Hosni Mubarak fell in the Arab Spring and Mohammed Morsi was ousted last year.

It is no secret that the journalists are sacrificial pawns in a silent war between Egypt and oil-rich Qatar, seen as a supporter of the Brotherhood, and accused by Egypt of fomenting trouble. While it is well known that Qatar finances the TV channel, the international community is convinced Al Jazeera is just doing its job of reporting events in a sensitive region professionally and without any perceivable prejudices.

There is no real yardstick for freedom of the press, which by no means is an absolute. But as a member of the free world and a champion of press freedom, the United States has reached out to plead for the journalists who were sentenced, with secretary of state John Kerry speaking directly to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Some other journalists too await sentencing. The world can only urge Egypt to see reason and desist from persecuting journalists who are simply doing their job.