I almost hesitate to be so blunt and risk evermore blurring that line between “journalist” and “activist” (which frankly I don’t see as blurry, and the majority of journalists in the world seem content to ignore press freedom violations around the world and those who agitate to protect them) but this situation is infuriating and sometimes you have to call it like it is. If it proves that Per has done something wrong, I will gladly eat my hat. However, it is as close to certainty as can be that his deportation is a move to silence even the most thoughtful, non-violent dissenting voices in Egypt at any cost. This quote really got me, from the Egyptian embassy in Stockholm:
The magazine Stockholms Fria has spoken to the Egyptian embassy in Stockholm. It claims that Per Björklund has violated Egyptian law.”I don’t want to speculate in which crime he has conducted, but I can assure you that it is not about something he has written, since press freedome is prevailing in Egypt”, says Nader Nabil Zaki from the Egyptian embassy to Stockholms Fria.
- Read on
Bullshit.
