Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20150928

Freedom, two jailed al jazeera journalists have finally been pardoned and released. Baher mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy spent over a year in and egyptian jail. We will speak with the third al jazeera journalist, peter greste , who was imprisoned with them for more than 400 days and reported to australia. He has yet to receive a pardon. The fact is, we did nothing wrong. There was no evidence of wrongdoing. Ande guys are innocent men innocent men are in prison. That is what it is about. One day in prison would be unjust. Amy peter greste has traveled to new york to lobby for a pardon from egyptian president elsisi whos here for the general assembly. All of that and more coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Pope francis has left the United States after a historic sixday visit. During his trip, pope francis addressed congress and the United Nations general assembly, fed Homeless People in washington, d. C. And met with , immigrant families and people who survived child sex abuse by clergy. The pope said god weeps over the sexual abuse of children, although critics and some survivors of clergy abuse said the popes meeting was not enough and pushed for more accountability among the clergy. Pope francis also visited the curranfromhold correctional facility on the outskirts of philadelphia. It is painful and we see prison systems which are not concerned to care for wounds, to soothe pain, to offer new possibilities. Amy Republican House Speaker John Boehner has announced he is resounding not only a speaker of the house, but from congress. He has served in congress for 25 years, and as speaker of the house since 2011. During his tenure, boehner has faced intense pressure from the far right lawmakers in his own party. In an interview with cbs sunday, boehner dismissed members of the farright republican faction as false prophets. Are they unrealistic about what can be done in government . Absolutely, they are unrealistic. But, you know, the bible says beware of false prophets. There are people out there about how much cant get done. This whole idea of shut down the government to get rid of obamacare in 2013, this plan never had a chance. Amy many expect House Majority leader Kevin Macarthur to be elected as boehners position as speaker of the house. The California Republican has served in the house since only 2006. He would be the least experienced speaker in more than a century. In spain, proindependence parties in catalonia have won a majority in regional elections, possibly paving the way for an independent catalan state. Catalonia has long sought its independence from spain. On sunday, separatist parties won 72 out of a 135seat regional parliament. Catalan president artur mas spoke after the results were announced. The yes has one, but democracy has also one, and that is very important. To do victories and one for, the yes and democracy. Amy france has carried out its first airstrikes in syria against the selfproclaimed islamic state, making it the latest country to to expand its antiisil Bombing Campaign to syria. The move is a reversal from frances earlier position that International Law prevented it from attacking targets in syria. French Prime Minister manuel valls said the bombing would continue as long as it is necessary. The targets, as ive said, are the refugees who were those who target france are trained and come from and youll understand im not going to give any more information at this stage, but suffice it to say, obviously, we will continue this action as long as it is necessary. Amy this comes as iraq has reached a new intelligence sharing agreement with russia, iraq, iran, syria in the fight against isil. The accord is perceived to be the latest move by russia to take control of the fight against isil. Russia and the United States have disagreed on the strategy in syria. The u. S. Is calling for the ouster of president bashar alassad, while russia is bolstering his government with military aid. President obama and russian leader Vladimir Putin are expected to have their first formal meeting in more than two years at the United Nations today. In yemen, Officials Say that u. S. Backed, saudiled air strikes killed 28 civilians in the northern hajjah province on sunday. Officials say the victims of the victims were mostly women and children. Saudi arabia has denied responsibility. This comes as saudi diplomats are attempting to fend off calls for a u. N. Human Rights Council investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the ongoing conflict in yemen. A u. N. Human Rights Commission report has blamed the u. S. Backed saudiled airstrikes for the majority of the civilian casualties. Demo rousseff has pledged brazil will cut Greenhouse Gas emissions by more than 40 by 2030. She also pledged during a speech at the u. N. General assembly sunday to work to end illegal logging in the amazon, but she stopped short of declaring a freeze on deforestation. Meanwhile, Oil Giant Shell has announced it will end its multibilliondollar Arctic Drilling program. The announcement comes after its exploratory well in the chukchi sea showed only traces of oil and gas. This summer, the Obama Administration approved shells permit to drill in the remote arctic waters, despite fierce opposition from environmental groups. German newspapers have reported volkswagen technicians had warned the company about emissions cheating in internal reports as early as 2011. As early as 2007. The revelations come as switzerland suspends sales of nearly 200,000 volkswagen cars potentially equipped with illegal emissions devices designed to cheat emission tests, which have been installed in 11 million volkswagen diesel cars worldwide. In europe, 12,000 refugees fleeing violence in their home countries of iraq, syria, afghanistan, somalia, nigeria, eritrea, and other countries crossed the border on foot between hungary and austria saturday. This comes as thousands more refugees arrived on greeces mainland over the weekend. Meanwhile, 17 people drowned sunday when their boat sank off the turkish coast, en route greece. Nearly 500,000 refugees have reached europe this year. Antonio guterres, the u. N. High commissioner for refugees, said saturday attention should have been paid to the refugee crisis earlier. Only when the poor into the halls of the rich to the rich notice that the poor exist, and for chile. Until we had this Massive Movement and europe, there was no recognition in the developed world but are serious refugee crisis, that is in the past we had more massive support for the refugees and massive support to those in the developing world that have been receiving them and protecting them, this would not have happened. Amy in response to the influx of refugees, thousands marched in brussels sunday in a refugees welcome solidarity march. This comes after in finland dozens of nationalists, including one man dressed like a member of the ku klux klan, threw fireworks and rocks at a bus filled with iraqi refugees and finnish red cross volunteers on thursday. Nationalists also scrawled the words go home on the Pavement Outside the refugee reception in lahti. Meanwhile, a finnish man has been arrested for throwing a molotov cocktail at an emergency refugee shelter in another part of finland. Back in the United States, in winsted, connecticut, the u. S. s first known long museum of anytime has opened. It was established by consumer activist ralph nader in efforts to educate people about the hardfought history of consumer protections. Ralph nader spoke at sundays opening in his hometown. We have open this first law museum of any kind in america, in order to enlighten and educate people about the great benefits to their health, safety, and freedom that the law of wrongful injury called tort law has provided them over 200 years. Look, we have the tort law broke maraudinghole tobacco of it takes 400,000 american lives a year, or the asbestos curses that have killed so Many Americans in this corporate coverup, and product defects in automobiles and pharmaceuticals and hospital malpractice and lack of security for apartment buildings all of these cases generated a message to the owners, the people who control these companies, that it is cheaper to be safe than to be unsafe and inflict terrible injuries on innocent people whether their customers, workers, adjust People Living in a community. That is what this museum is all about. Amy in california, people have splashed paint on headstones and toppled the statue of Junipero Serra in a Catholic Mission in carmel following pope francis controversial decision to canonize the 18thcentury spanish missionary. The canonization has drawn strong protest from many indigenous groups. At the mission, greed was written on a cross and the words saint of genocide were scrawled on a headstone. The Carmel Police say they are investigating the incident as a hate crime because people targeted specifically the headstones of people of european descent, and not native american descent. The children of georgia deathrow prisoner Kelly Gissendaner are pleading for a stay of execution ahead of her scheduled execution on tuesday. She was sentenced to death in 1998 for recruiting her boyfriend to kill her husband, douglas gissendaner. She is the only woman on death row in georgia. Many have called for a stay, including former chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court norman fletcher. Kayla gissendaner, kelly and dougs daughter, called for her mothers life to be spared in a cnn video. Grown and the changes she has made our incredible. She has been a way better mom to me. She is so supportive of me. I can talk to her about anything , any troubles i have for anything i want to celebrate. And i know she is my biggest to leader. My brothers and i really want my mom to live. She is all that we have left. Amy in new york, nypd deputytos facing scrutiny after it emerged that he served as a prison guard at abu ghraib prison during the time of the prisoner torture scandal. New york city activists have long accused lombardo of Excessive Force arbitrary , arrests, intense questioning. He was active in the nypd crackdown of occupy wall street. Lombardo now works with the new York Police Departments new Strategic Response team, which is assigned to protests, and has been active in policing black lives matter actions. And in mexico, tens of thousands of people marched saturday to mark the First Anniversary of the disappearance of the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College in the Southern State of guerrero. The students disappeared after coming under attack by local police in iguala. The case has sparked massive protests mexico and across the world as the parents continue to demand answers. An International Group of experts has rejected the mexican governments accounts of events, saying the investigation was deeply flawed, and pointing to the role the federal police and military played in the student disappearance. On saturday, the mother of student Julio Cesar Ramirez nava, who was found dead with his face ripped off after last years attack in iguala, spoke out. For me, it was the most viable thing in life my son. But they took him away from me. Here i am, and im going to fight until i breathe my last breath. I have said this to that corrupt president , that we are not going to stop and i especially am going to stop him. Every day im going to keep searching for these 43 boys because in this moment, no one knew they were going to sacrifice three boys leaving, to greatly injured, and others injured. No one knew theyre going to take away 43, but they took them. These deaths will not be in vain, people. If it is necessary to give up my life, here i am giving it up and i will continue to give it up. Ay that was the mother of student who was found dead with his face ripped off after last years attack in iguala. He was not one of the 43 students disappeared a year ago. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Egyptian president Abdel Fattah Elsisi granted pardons to 100 people on wednesday, including two jailed journalists from al jazeera, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed. The two were initially arrested along with australian journalist peter greste as part of a crackdown on al jazeera following the ouster of the democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. To the shock of press freedom advocates, the three were initially sentenced to between seven and 10 years in prison. After over a year in a jailed peter greste was released in , february, deported home to australia. Shortly afterwards, following more than a year behind bars, fahmy and Baher Mohamed were also freed on bail. But then in august they were resentenced to three years in jail. Last week Baher Mohamed , described what it felt like when he learned about the pardon. After 411 days, it is like a big rock was on your chest and suddenly, you moved it. It was such a feeling. It is hard to describe. I was jumping and jumping. Even i heard the word release and thats it. The sound inside the cell, grass, so youwith can just hear almost the sound it was amazing. I kept jumping and jumping. I will not stay in prison. I am happy am going back to my family, seeing my family and my kids. I just looked to my wife and kids. Theyre very happy im returning home. This is something very beautiful and i really appreciate. I want to continue freedom of press. Amy in a statement Amnesty International said while these pardons come as a great relief, it is ludicrous that some of these people were even behind bars in the first place. While these pardons come as a great relief, it is ludicrous that some of these people were even behind bars in the first place. While fahmy and mohamed have been pardoned, no pardon has been issued yet for peter greste. He has come to new york to lobby for a president ial pardon while egyptian president general abdel fatah elsisi is here attending the United Nations general assembly. Elsisi has been invited by president obama to attend the Leaders Summit on countering my onl sil taking place tuesday. Egypt claims it has recently killed nearly 500 people during an antimilitant offensive operation martyrs right. Peter greste joins us in the studio. Longtime Foreign Correspondent who worked at the bbc, cnn and reuters before joining al jazeera. In 2011, he won a peabody award for documentary on somalia. Peter greste, it is a pleasure to have you here in our studios in new york will stop you served over 400 days in prison in egypt. 400 exactly, in fact. Amy you got out of prison, your deported to australia. Happened last week with your two al jazeera colleagues. One of the things that surprised us was when the retrial began, i was deported in our formalen convictions and the start of the retrial process. Once the retrial began, we thought i was off the case. That i was in fact included in the retrial. I was in abstention. The court officially did not recognize my deportation under president ial order. We were all convicted a few weeks ago, finally, amy and sentenced to another three years. Convicted on terrorism charges. And last week, and much to everyones surprise, we really were not expecting it, the president formally pardons 100 prisoners, 100 detainees including fahmy and baher. We were hoping i and six other people who were convicted in absentia in the first trial would also received pardons. That has not happened yet. As you just mentioned, that is why im here at the moment, to try and clear the names of all of those who are convicted in abstention. Amy can you talk about what happened this weekend in the u. N. . President ekend we saw sisi speak. We saw quite a number of there were a lot of meetings and it seemed quite a lot of i, andion focused on sis we have been having a number of conversations. I have been speaking with the Australian Foreign minister who is also spoken to her egyptian counterpart. Everyone seems to be supporting us. Amy just to understand on friday when the pope addressed the general assembly, didnt your foreign minister julie bishop meet with the foreign minister in the presence of president elsisi . Yes. Amy and what did they say . Thatlie bishop, she said foreign minister said the egyptians were keen to try to find a solution to this, they were looking favorably at the possibility of pardoning the journalist, but they had several legal obstacles to overcome. In unnecessary amy what made you different from your colleagues . The fact we were convicted in absentia. As i understand it, the law does not allow the president to pardon people in absentia, that we have to be present to apply for a pardon. Amy are you planning to go back . No. Amy and youre talking about another group of journalists who never served time in prison, but were convicted in absentia. Yes, in all, there were the three of us plus six others who were all convicted all charged in absentia in the first trial. They were unable they werent part of the retrial because they are not allowed to appeal if theyre not physically present. Those convictions remain for them. What were trying to do is get everybody off these charges. The fact is, were very grateful to president elsisi for baher, itfahmy and was an injustice that never shouldve happened, and i think the president has made the acknowledgment of that with the pardons, but the fact is, that is extremely welcome first step. That is the thing that has been bothering all of us to the one thing we needed to happen was to have everybody out of prison. Is not afraid it everything. We need to finish this off, and that is clear lets clear everyone elses name who is on this list. Amy what does it mean to say you have not been pardoned . How does that affect you . There are three big areas. The first is, the usual problems that come with anybody who has a criminal record. This is a very serious criminal record, a record on terrorism charges. Have aody knows, if you criminal record, it makes travel very difficult. It was difficult for me to get into the United States. Amy what do mean . Anyone who travels to the u. S. Generally gets in on a Visa Waiver Program from australia. You have to answer a question and one of them is, have you ever been arrested . You have to explain. I have to say all was arrested and convicted on charges of aiding iteris organization, financing a terrorist organization, broadcasting paulson is to undermine National Security. Please google me because it was even president obama spoke out in support of our case. It raises all sorts of red flags for the bureaucrats who are processing these visas. We had to get special clearance from the state department, from john kerrys office himself, to get that visa through. Now, it was never going to be a major problem, but it caused us a lot of bureaucratic headaches. Things like getting bank loans and the like are all problematic. Travel is a real headache. I want im trying to go to a number of countries. Kenya before in was arrested. Kenya was my home. I was covering east africa for al jazeera. Whole of the African Union has a much tradition treaty. The problem is, if an arrest warrant is issued, then im liable to be arrested anywhere in the africa union and sent back to egypt. Again, we dont know that warrant has been issued, but as far as am aware, it hasnt, but i could be issued anytime. Myis sort of hanging over head. Apart from those issues, the fact is, this case has become diplomatic of a much wider issue over the press freedom. What we have been saying to the diplomats and to egypt is that we need to see this finished off because our cases at a very damaging effect, i think, on freedom of the press. The egyptians keep saying to us that this was never about the press, this was about freedom of the press and the were not targeting the press must specifically, were trying to send a message, simply about the facts of law. Whatever their motivations were, the fact is, isnt a very chilling message to any journalist that has been operating in egypt. To have if the press is going to operate freely, as is enshrined in the egyptian constitution, then we need to get these charges cleared. Amy we are talking to peter greste. He is free and in our studios, here in new york. He is loving the egyptian president elsisi for a pardon. When we come back, i want to talk about his time in prison and also those who remain behind bars. Talk about overall press freedom. Peter greste is an al jazeera journalist imprisoned in egypt for 400 days covering the egyptian revolution that took place. He was arrested during a crackdown on al jazeera during the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. We will be back with him in a minute. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. , oneuest is peter greste of the three al jazeera reporters who was arrested december 20 9, 2013. You heard about them extensively over the 400 days that peter greste was in jail and a bit more than that for Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy, who have just been pardoned and released from jail by the president of egypt. I was wondering, peter, if you would go back to that day, to december 29, and you been in egypt for two weeks . I was only in the bureau covering i am not in egypt expert. I had not worked in the country before. I was in kenya covering used africa. That is my patch. They needed someone to work over the christmasnew year period, so i agreed to go in and fill in the bureau. Honestly, one of the things that continually frustrated me in a way was that we were arrested for what turns out to be some pretty monday reporting. We were not doing anything particular radical. I was just china make sure the basic story was covered. It was very routine journalism, no for investigation. We certainly were not pushing the boundaries. I was absolutely staggered, to be honest, when the secret Service Agents the special Service Agents burst into our ram and started picking up all of our equipment and dragging us down to the police department. Amy you are covering, at that time, mubarak was out for president morsi was in. At that point, president morsi had been ousted and had been ousted in june 2013. There was the instrume interim administration that have been installed earlier that year and that government was trying its main job was to organize fresh elections, which happened earlier in 2014. At the time, the brotherhood was under enormous pressure. Shortly before we were arrested, the government banned the brotherhood and declared them to be a terraced organization, but had not formally or legally presented the measure as a terrorist organization. So as far as we were concerned, the brotherhood still amounts to the official opposition. It had formed a government, the first legitimately elected the Administration Egypt had ever had. It had been forced out of power and the new government had taken to declaring it as a terraced organization. Well, we simply were doing the job of any responsible journalist, particularly, when it came to covering some fairly significant political changes taking place. The government was introducing the legislation, introduced or changed the constitution quite radically. We went and asked the brotherhood what they thought of it. Of course, we were not acting as propagandists, we were just doing the job of responsible journalism producing balanced reports. Amy so explain what the government charged you with. We were charged basically with being propagandists for the brotherhood. Amy to interview them was to be their propagandist, according to the Egyptian Government. Basically, yes. The charges were far more severe. We were charged with broadcasting false news. We were charged with broadcasting news diner my National Security. We were charged with trying to give the false impression of egypt in the state of chaos is a country of war. We did not we did none of those things. One of the things were continually said to the prosecutor was, look, if you believe we broadcast false news, acted as propagandists, please, show us. By definition, the work we produced is a matter of record. Where is the false news and the propaganda . One of the rather disturbing elements of the verdict, which written judgment, which was released only a few weeks ago, was the idea from the judges who said it was no need for specific technical evidence in our case, that the overall narrative was enough to convict us. Which, i think, cuts to the very core of the problem here, that each of seems to believe egypt seems to believe that simply by working for an organization that is financed by qatar, by definition is the must be members of the Muslim Brotherhood and there is no need for them to come up with specific evidence. Amy i want to turn to one of your last reports, peter greste, before you were arrested, covering clashes between supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian Security forces. Areou can see the clashes still ongoing. We understand the Muslim Brotherhood, students entered the university and some of the exam halls and try to tear up some of the exam papers and enforce a boycott of the exams in protest at the government. We understand the authorities, the police moved in and fired tear gas. They were hit by the tear gas canisters, which is currently set fire to some of the exam papers. What we have is an ongoing clash that really represents the Broader Vision that were seeing that we saw yesterday were supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, supporters of the antiviolence to to the streets and opened defines of the governments ban on protests. In particular, challenging the government to arrest them and enforce this fiveyear prison sentence, which the government has been threatened to impose on anybody, he was convicted of taking part in these demonstrations. In that was peter greste cairo talking about what was happening at that time in the clashes between the supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian Security forces. It must bring you back. So december 29, they break into where you were staying and they took everything and you got a prison. What happens . Describe the time in prison for us. Everyone outside, that is a black box, once you disappear. Egyptian prisons are never the best places. Prison anywhere is pretty tough experience will stop egyptian prisons are never the easiest. I was in two police cells before we enter the prison system. I think there were probably some of the toughest experiences of my life. One of them one cell was a box about eight foot square. It had a toilet in one corner and a sink in the other and a tiny little exhaust fan in the corner. There were 16 guys in that box. Unbelievably crowded. T was impossibly crowded a couple of guys had been there for about six months without must know time out of that at all. It was quite shocking. I did not spend a great deal of time there can only couple of days, but it was enough to understand the kind of environment that an awful lot of people from there we were , aed into the prison system number of prisons. I was kept in solitary confinement for the first 10 days or so. Before i was allowed to have any kind of connections with any other prisoners. Again, a small concrete box, basic water and food and a bed. That tough conditions at point. It was very, very cold. , of course, and even though egypt gets hot in the summer, it is very cold in the winter. The problem i know we also probably,ly not definitely, much better prison conditions than anybody else, largely because we had a lot of attention focused on us from a lot of human rights groups, from diplomats, missions, and so on. Amy when did you rejoin baher and mohammed . It took about a month. I was in a prison alongside some of the main activist of the january 25 reservation revolution, the youth revolution. Leaders of the april 6 movement and several other groups. And the just before our trial, our first try was moved to moster prison, which had of the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood in it, and that is where we were put into one cell together. Amy gave you a chance to really interview them. We actually started what was radio, which after lockdown, everyone would pull the beds up to the end of the doors in the was a small hatch and you would sort of bellow out the doors and have these conversations up and down the corridors. And really sort of started to, i guess, were journalists and we do what journalists normally do, and that is interrogate and try and understand what was going on , what the deeper issues involved were, what were the brotherhood leadership thinking. Again, we wanted to know. We wanted to understand. Amy i want to read an excerpt you wrote from prison was published by al jazeera in writing from tora prison, he 2014. Colleagues fahmy and baher have been accused of being Muslim Brotherhood members, so they are being held in the far more draconian scorpion prison built for convicted terrorists. Fahmy has been denied the hospital treatment he badly needs for a shoulder injury he sustained shortly before our arrest. Both men spend 24 hours a day in their mosquitoinfested cells, sleeping on the floor with no books or writing materials to break the souldestroying tedium. Remember we have not been formally charged, much less convicted of any crime. But this is not just about three aljazeera journalists. Our arrest and continued detention sends a clear and unequivocal message to all journalists covering egypt, both foreign and local. How did you get that letter out . I cant tell you at this point. There are ways of communicating in egypt. There are still some people who helped, who supported us, who are interested in making sure that our case was heard, so i cant go into too much detail. I wrote that letter because i was concerned, because as i said , that particular point, we had not been charged. It was clear this was heading in a very dangerous direction. This was really only a couple of weeks after we had been arrested. For the first few weeks, i struggled trying to understand what was taking place, what had happened, why we were in this position. Initially if there been a mistake, it would all be cleared up fairly quickly. We had not done anything wrong. I knew we hadnt done anything wrong. Once the authorities understood, then we would be fine. But as the questioning progressed, it became clear to me that this really wasnt what we had done ourselves, it was what weird come to represent what we had come to represent, net was the entire journalism community. I wrote the letter because i felt the case would either be argued about the detail of what we it said, whether it was right for us to interview one figure and not the other, whether our language have been biased or not biased, when in fact, what this really was about, as far as i was concerned, was the bigger issues of press freedom. Amy describe what it was like to be brought to court, to stand in a cage. That was tough. That court is designed for terrorism cases, so when you are brought into that room and a buffer a cage with between you and everybody else in court, it is quite intimidating. You know this is how youre being treated, that youre being seen as not just a dangerous prison, but a direct threat to the security of everybody else in that room. Yes, it is it was extreme we difficult to see, and even watching these pictures now, takes me back quite dramatically to those times. Amy who was it who shouted out of the three of you . Fahmy and baher. I am routinely described by my colleagues as softspoken. My voice doesnt have the same kind of volume. Every time i try to shout out, i never quite managed to make it across the room. Everybody else was struggling to hear. Amy and their point . What there were shouting . We needed to communicate. We had no other way draghi communicating. The rooms were full of journalists. Amy you are hearing people in the grout background for our audience. This is the court. Or those who are watching, listening on the radio, we are showing images of bahher and mohammed and peter in a cage. In a cage in a court, that felt that was very confronting. Was basically shouting at messages to our families, but also the bigger messages we felt needed to be we needed to remind people. We knew there was a lot of press attention. We do see the general foray before us, and we needed to make it clear to them that we are innocent, that we felt we were being charged being used as an example rather than because of anything we had actually done. Amy can you talk about that period of time you spent in a cell with Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy, how many days . I dont remember exactly how many days we spent in that cell, it would well, the trial ran over six months, so it was that sixmonth period. Amy how do you keep your sanity daytoday in prison . For me, its i did not think of it in quite so clear terms of the time, but ultimately, it boiled down to dealing with mind, body, and spirit. You had to keep your physical fitness up. So every opportunity we had, you would we went exercising. They let us out for an hour a day and we would run for the full hour. We had an exercise regime they brought in called 5px, designed for confined spaces, i think designed by the Canadian Air Force if they were ever down in world war ii and captured. It was useful. But the problem also in prison thisat youre faced with shapeless time, if you dont do something, impose a structure, it will send you crazy. So we would spend i would spend a lot of time in meditation. We had nothing in there. No books, no running material, no reading material. They even took our watches for the first period. That made it psychologically and extreme we difficult. Your mind tends to turn in on itself and in that environment, your mind is your own worst enemy. For me, meditation was a way of controlling that monkey mind control, controlling the mind, stopping it from running out of control, from running amok. And the other part of it was also dealing keeping mentally fit. We were playing mind games, memory games, consciously try to spend time being creative. Sometimes we had food delivered with foil and we would save the foil and we made foil murals on the walls, stuck it up with soap. Anything, basically, to keep ourselves mentally active as well. Amy you and baher came up with the universal Media Freedom charter . Thats right. We were trying to think about first of all, what why we were in the situation and about the bigger issues around press freedom, not just in egypt, but globally because i dont think the issue is even in australia we have some fairly for connie and laws were fighting at the moment to try to make sure we keep press free draconian laws were fighting at the moment to try to make sure we keep press free. Were seeing press freedom eroded quite dramatically around the world. We felt there needed to be some kind of clear statement over the principles of journalism and the roles and responsibilities that both journalists and governments need to have. Something we recognized, something that has force of law is probably too difficult to get through, but something along the universal declaration of human rights is the kind of thing we auld be looking for that sets Gold Standard of the way the relationship should work, the roles of responsibility of both government and the media that has, if not force of law, certainly, a lot of moral authority. This is still very much a work in progress. This might not be the best solution or the police solution, but we need to do something to do something to protect journalists. Amy that are still more than 20 journalists behind bars, the most high profile of them has received a life sentence and also another his been held for over two years without trial. The committee for protection of journalists has done the surveys and the Egyptian Government insists that it is operating within the law, that those journalists are there because they broke there were specific breaches of the law. Amy like with you. As they did with us, exactly. The fact we have been pardoned rather than acquitted i think is still concerning for us. I would rather have our names amy although, you have not been pardoned. No, i havent. We need to go through that process. Amy what about the role of al jazeera . Mohamed fahmy sued al jazeera for breach of contract for saying they werent concerned enough with security. Your thoughts about whether al jazeera stood up for you . Theres no doubt al jazeera made some mistakes in the way they handled our case in the way they handled the lead up to our arrest. Amy because a group from Al Jazeera English was arrested before you all. Thats right. There have been a lot of pressure on al jazeera and the journalist and the teams in egypt. Al jazeera has never had the best relationship with the egyptian authorities, and we understood that. And certainly, there were difficult questions to answer and we have been through some difficult forensic debates with our bosses. It is still very much a work in progress. But my view has always been that al jazeera as an institution was not on trial. If egypt had problems with al jazeera as a network or guitar as a government, then it needed to deal with those organizations or those institutions at the appropriate level, not come after some guys on the ground. We were the ones who are specifically charged with aiding a terrorist organization, not the network, the three of us. We were specifically the ones charged with broadcasting walls news. We have always said, where was the evidence against us . There was none. We were not involved with any of that. We were working as good professional journalists. We know the limits, we know what we should and should not be doing, and there was nothing we did nothing criminal. We did not collude with terrorists. Amy i want to ask what it meant to you, journalists around the world, putting tape over their mouths in solidarity with you. Amy, this was extraordinary. We were absolutely overwhelmed by the scale of the response, both by our professional colleagues and by the public, by diplomats and politicians. As you would know, journalists are about as difficult to organize as a herd of cats. Instinctively, we find each other with skeptical, cynical, cantankerous bunch. And extremely competitive. To see our direct rivals like the bbc and cnn all taping their mouths up, holding free a j staff was gratifying to us because it made it very clear that the journalists around the world understood the significance of what we were going through, and why this fight was so important, because it wasnt just about the three of us. It was about the institution and press freedom amy and then there were your families speaking out all along the way. Lassiter egyptian president elsisi said he would not intervene on the sentencing of three al jazeera journalists between seven to 10 years in prison, even as International Outcry spread. I want to play lip of your father a clip of your father responded to that decision. Time notark only for our family, but for journalism generally. We are devastated, shocked, and dismayed at this finding. Were not usually a family of superlatives, but i have to say this morning, my vocabulary fails to convey just how shattered we are. , ornalism is not a crime you should all be behind bars. It is as simple as that. , is ann, our son peter. Wardwinning journalist he is not a criminal. He is not a criminal. Amy that is your father. Where was he speaking . He was in brisbane at the abc studios in brisbane. Watching that was quite difficult. My father, my karens went through hell that year. They were extraordinary advocates. They found a voice that i dont think even they knew they had. They fought and campaigned and lobbied. My father is a retired architect , my mother is a social worker a retired social worker. And all of a sudden, they became International Lawyers and diplomats and campaigners completely outside her comfort zone. An tough time for all of the family. But to be honest with you, i dont think i would be her now if it were for them. Amy because . Because they were the voice. They took they took my story and made it human stuff they made people understand what was really going on with us at a very human level, and made people appreciate what was going on. They allowed people to empathize and identify not just with us, but with the family, the extended family. And i think they helped really convey the fact that we werent terrorists, we werent criminals, we were professional journalists working with integrity and professionalism we could muster. Amy we are going to take a break and come back to the end of this discussion. Our guest for the hour is peter greste, and al jazeera journalist who was imprisoned in egypt for 400 days during a crackdown on al jazeera following the ouster of president. He was arrested december 20 9, 2013 with his two al jazeera colleagues Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy. Back with him in a moment. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Is peter for the hour greste, al jazeera journalist known around the world because he was one of three al jazeera journalists imprisoned in egypt. He was imprisoned for 400 days. He is here in new york seeking a pardon from the egyptian president elsisi who is at the u. N. General assembly. Whether he gets that, we will see. His two other colleagues while held longer than he was, Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy, by a number of weeks, they were pardoned last week along with 100 others in egypt. Coverage ask you about refugees. And also he reported all over the world. You won a major award covering somalia, for example. You are the son of an Asylum Seeker in australia . My father is latin. His family fled let the a latvia general war to and they came out to australia as refugees in the wake of world war ii. In a way, of course everybody apart from the aborigines in austral you are my grids of some sort, refugees or migrants seeking a better life, everybody has come to australia i think much the same way they have come here at some point, to this country. Amy and you criticized the former Prime Minister of australia, tony abbott. Yes, well, it was interesting. This was at the National Press club amy in australia. Yes. We had julie bishop sitting in the audience and someone asked me about coverage of the Refugee Detention Center in an island to the north of australia where asylumseekers are being held. And i made the point amy they keep them on islands in the south pacific. Thats right, away from the press. The press have been denied access to those areas. And i felt very, very strongly about this, that this is were not been denied access on National Security grounds. It is impossible, i think, to justify denying access to to those Detention Centers, because in a democracy, the gow the government acts and our name, works press as voters, as taxpayers. Unless there is a very clear, very specific reason for denying us access on National Security grounds, massively cant see why there would be in the case of asylumseekers, then we need to know what is being done in our name. The only reason we can think of is those Detention Centers might actually be embarrassing to the austrian government. Frankly, that is not good enough. In a democracy, we need to be amy they either put them in Detention Centers or turn them away. And anybody who tries to get into australia by boat is automatically placed in those Detention Centers. Either sent back to their country of origin or resettled in third countries. They will not be allowed into australia. It is very controversial policy. The government of tony abbott has insisted it is dealing practical approach to stopping the boats. They say this is for the safety of the asylumseekers themselves because they argue in fact by stopping the movement of refugees, they effectively are shutting down the people smugglers, who are responsible for so many deaths at sea. Whether or not that is actually saving lives is a debatable question, whether this is the best way of doing that is something that is still ongoing. And one of the key elements of that debate is whether it is appropriate to keep those asylumseekers on those islands in those Detention Centers and conditions that, frankly, we know are quite severe. We really havent been able to examine properly because the press isnt allowed access. Amy you laid a wreath along with the widow of greg shackleton, a story i think our viewers and listeners know well about east timor. He was killed in the lead up to the indonesias invasion of east timor by indonesian forces. You laid a wreath at the graves of or monument to war correspondents who have died. Thats right. This is something im getting goosebumps remembering this. This is something im proud of. The Australian Government after a long, long time they have agreed to a memorial not just to correspondents who have been killed in action, to war correspondents, but to all of those who served in conflict zones as reporters. And it is an extremely timely roleder of why of the that Foreign Correspondents, war correspondents play in keeping people informed of what is going on. We have to have a place we have a place that is accepted. The government accepts we have a legitimate role to play. And it is right and proper i think that that role is memorialized. Amy i want to thank you so much, peter greste, al jazeera journalist. You can go to our website to read the transcript. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. 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