SoMe used to help press freedom

Yesterday was a Global Day of Action for members of the media that have been detained in Egypt as well as the worsening conditions for journalists in that country.

The event was organized by news agency Al Jazeera, who has four journalists trapped in Egypt.

The organization urged people to include the hahstag #FreeAJStaff as they tweeted, many with photos of their mouths taped over in duct or electrical tape.

Pete Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were arrested at the end of December and were accused of spreading false news as well as being accused of being members of a “terrorist” organization. 

Abdullah Al Shamy was arrested six months ago and is still awaiting trial in Egypt. All four are reporters with Al Jazeera. 

The Committee to Protect Journalists labelled Egypt as one of the three most deadly nations for Journalists — Syria and Iraq were the other two.

At tremdsmap.com, more than 100 countries — including Bermuda — could be identified tweeting with the #Freeajstaff hashtag. The Twitter feed with the hashtag was averaging more than 20 tweets per minute at one point yesterday afternoon.