Adil Bradlow, the South African photo journalist detained by Egyptian authorities last week, has been released along with his fellow Al Jazeera team, correspondent Wayne Hay and producers Russ Finn and Mohammed Baher. They were detained for five days without charge.
“Al Jazeera Media Network would like to thank all those who helped us over the past few difficult days, especially the New Zealand, South African and Irish embassies in Cairo,” the network said in a statement.
Bradlow’s family, on his website, said they wanted to thank “all well-wishers and supporters , to the media for ensuring Adil’s captivity remained in the spotlight -and to officials from the South African Department of International Relations and Co-operation (DIRCO) and the British Embassy Cairo for their efforts in securing his release.”
Al Jazeera’s woes are far from over. Shihab Elddin Shaarawi, the Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr executive producer, was arrested early on Friday morning by security forces, who kept denying his detention until Sunday, when they confirmed that he has been arrested.
Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Abdullah al-Shami and Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr cameraman Mohamed Badr are still being detained. Abdullah was arrested on 14 August 2013, while Mohamed has been held for more than one month.
The channel says the Egyptian government of jamming its signal for the past seven weeks and from blocking the broadcaster from sending out raw TV feeds on the Egyptian crisis to other broadcasters.
In a story on Media Guardian, Al Jazeera’s head of teleport said it had “pinpointed four different locations for the source of jamming after commissioning an interference detection company, Integral Systems Europe, to investigate the problem. Three of these were east of Cairo and one was in the desert west of the capital”.
Ibrahim Nassar said the channel’s Egyptian service, al-Jazeera Mubasher, was ubjected to “jamming every day between the hours of 7am and midnight since 5 July. It broadcasts on the Egyptian-owned Nilesat satellite”.
Al Jazeera has called for the Egyptian authorities to release all our staff unconditionally, along with their belongings and equipment.
IMAGE: Adil Bradlow, from www.adilbradlow.com and returning team, also www.adilbradlow.com
