Al Jazeera and CJFE to hold press conference calling for immediate release of detained journalists.

Al Jazeera Media Network and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) will hold a press conference on Thursday, 6 February, in Toronto calling on the Egyptian authorities to immediately release five journalists detained there. On December 29th, Canadian-Egyptian journalist Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste, and Bahar Mohammed of Al Jazeera English were imprisoned in Cairo. Their Al Jazeera colleagues, Abdullah Al Shami and Mohammed Badr are also in Egyptian custody.

Al Jazeera executive producer for newsgathering, Owen Watson, will chair the conference and will be joined by:

• • Tony Burman (Former Managing Director of Al Jazeera English)
• • John Stackhouse (Editor-in-Chief of The Globe and Mail)
• • Tom Henheffer (Executive Director of CJFE)
• • Michelle Shephard (CJFE Board member and Toronto Star National Security Reporter)
• • Olivia Ward (Toronto Star Foreign Affairs Reporter)
• • John Greyson (Filmmaker and York University Professor)
• • Avi Lewis (Journalist and CBC Veteran)
• • Dave Enders (Friend and former colleague of Mohamed Fahmy)

When: Thursday, 6 February, 1PM – 2PM ET. Registration begins at 12NN.

Where: The Fairmont Royal York, Territories Room

Contact

For more information and footage, please contact:

Fox Deatry: +1 202 – 361 – 4977 | Fox.deatry@aljazeera.net

Please tweet at @AlJazeera and use #FreeAJStaff