Letters from Peter Greste in Tora Prison Peter has asked for these letters to be circulated as widely and

broadly as possible. Im not afraid of speaking out now. It needs to be done. Peter 1st letter I am nervous as I write this. I am in my cold prison cell after my first official exercise session four glorious hours in the grass yard behind our block and I dont want that right to be snatched away. Ive been locked in my cell 2 hours a day for the past 1! days" allowed out only for visits to the prosecutor for #uestioning" so the chance for a walk in the weak winter sunshine is precious. $o too are the books on history" %rabic and fiction that my neighbors have passed to me" and the pad and pen I now write with. I want to cling to these tiny &oys and avoid anything that might move the prison authorities to punitively withdraw them. I want to protect them almost as much as I want my freedom back. 'hat is why I have sought" until now" to fight my imprisonment #uietly from within" to make the authorities understand that this is all a terrible mistake" that Ive been caught in the middle of a political struggle that is not my own. (ut after 2 weeks in prison it is now clear that this is a dangerous decision. It validates an attack not &ust on me and my two colleagues but on freedom of speech across )gypt. %ll of a sudden" my books seem rather petty. I had been in *airo only two weeks before interior ministry agents burst through the door of my hotel room" that of my colleague and producer +ohamed ,ahmy" and into the home of %l&a-eeras second producer (aher +ohamed. .e had been doing exactly as any responsible" professional &ournalist would recording and trying to make sense of the unfolding events with all the accuracy" fairness and balance that our imperfect trade demands. +ost of the time" it is not a difficult path to walk. (ut when the )gyptian government declared the +uslim (rotherhood to be /'errorist organi-ation0" it knocked the middle ground out of the discourse. .hen the other side" political or otherwise" is a /terrorist0" there is no neutral way. %s 1eorge .. (ush loved to point out after 2311" you are either with the government or with the terrorists. $o" even talking to them becomes an act of treason" let alone broadcasting their news however benign. 'he following day" the government fleshed out its definition of the term. %nyone caught handing out +( leaflets" or simply participating in protest marches against the government could be arrested and imprisoned for /spreading terrorist ideology0. 'he +( has lost much of the support and credibility once had when its political leader +ohamed +orsi became )gypts first democratically elected president &ust over a year and a half ago. %nd many here hold it responsible for a growing wave of islamist violence" but it remains the single largest and best organi-ed social and political force in )gypt. .hat then for a &ournalist striving for /balance" fairness and accuracy40 5ow do you accurately and fairly report on )gypts ongoing political struggle without talking to everyone involved4

I worried about his at the time with +ohamed ,ahmy" but we decided that the choice was obvious as obvious as the price we are now paying for making it. 'he three of us have been accused of collaborating with a terrorist organi-ation 6+(7 " of hosting +( meetings in our hotel rooms" of using unlicensed e#uipments to deliberately broadcast false information to further their aims and defame and discredit the )gyptian state. 'he state has presented no evidence to support the allegations" and we have not been formally charged with any crime. (ut the prosecutor general has &ust extended our initial 189day detention by another 18 days to give investigators more time to find something. 5e can do this indefinitely one of my prison mates has been behind bars for : months without a single charge. I am in 'ora prison a sprawling complex in the south of the city where the authorities routinely violate legally enshrined prisoners rights" denying visits from lawyers" keeping cells locked for 2! hours a day 6 and 2 hours on public holidays7 and so on. (ut even that is relatively benign compared to the conditions my colleagues are being held in. ,ahmy and (aher have been accused of being +( members" $o they are being held in the far more draconian /$corpion prison0 built for convicted terrorists. ,ahmy has been denied the hospital treatment he badly needs for a shoulder in&ury he sustained shortly before our arrest. (oth men spend 2 hours a day in their mos#uito9infested cells" sleeping on the floor with no books or writing materials to break the soul9 destroying tedium. ;emember we have not been formally charged" much less convicted of any crime. (ut this is not &ust about three %l <a-eera &ournalists. =ur arrest and continued detention sends a clear and une#uivocal message to all &ournalists covering )gypt" both foreign and local. 'he state will not tolerate hearing from the +( or any other critical voices. 'he prisons are overflowing with anyone who opposes or challenges the government. $ecular activists are sentenced to > years with hard labor for violating protest laws after declining an invitation to openly support the government? campaigners putting up /@o0 banners ahead of the constitutional referendum are summarily detained. %nyone" in short" who refuses to applaud the institution. $o our arrest is not a mistake" and as a &ournalist this I$ my battle. I can no longer pretend itll go away by keeping #uiet and crossing my fingers. I have no particular fight with the )gyptian government" &ust as I have no interest in supporting the +( or any other group here. (ut as a &ournalist I am committed to defending a fundamental freedom of the press that no one in my profession can credibly work without. =ne that is deemed vital to the proper functioning of any open democracy" including )gypts with its new constitution. =fcourse we will continue to fight this from inside prison and through the &udicial system here. (ut our freedom" and more importantly the freedom of the press here" will not come without loud sustained pressure from human rights and civil society groups" individuals and governments who understand that )gypt stability depends as much as on its ability to hold open honest conversations among its people and the world" as it does on its ability to crush violence. .e know it is already happening" and all of us are both moved and strengthened by the extraordinary support we have already had" but it needs to continue. Peter 1reste 'ora prison

2nd letter 'orah prison" 213132!1 <ournalists are never supposed to become the story. % part from the print reporters by line or the broadcasters sign off" we are supposed to remain in the background as witnesses to or agents for the news? never as its sub&ect. 'hats why I find all the attention following our incarceration all very unsettling. 'his isnt to suggest I am ungrateful. %ll of us who were arrested in the interior ministrys sweep of %l <a-eeras staff on december 22 are hugely encouraged by and gratefulA for the overwhelmingshow of support from across the globe. ,rom the letter signed by : of the regions most respected and influential foreign correspondent calling for our immediate release? to the petition from australian colleagues? the letter9writing and online campaigns and family press conferences 9 all of it has been both humbling and empowering. .e know we are not alone. (ut what is galling is that we are into our fourth week behind bars for what I consider to be some pretty mundane reporting. Ive produced work in the past that has involved lots of detailed investigation" considerable risk" and not a small amount of sweat" that I wished the authorities would have been even a little bit offended by. Bet too often it has slipped out with infuriatingly little response. 'his assignment to *airo had been relatively routine 9 an opportunity to get to know )gyptian politics a little better? but with only three weeks on the ground" hardly time to do anything other than tread water. $o when a s#uad of plain clothed agents forced their way into my room" I was first genuinely confused and later even a little annoyed that it wasnt for some more significant slite. 'his is not a trivial point. 'he fact that we were arrested for what seems to be a set of relatively uncontroversial stories tells us a lot about what counts as /normal0 and what is dangerous in post revolutionary )gypt. =f course the allegations we are facing Asuggest anything but normal &ournalistic endeavours. 'he state has accused three of us 9 myselfA" and producers +ohamed ,ahmy and(aher +ohamed 9 of collaborating with the +uslim (rotherhood to use unlicensed e#uipment to broadcast information we knew to be false to defame and destabili-e )gypt. ,ahmy and (aher are further accused of being +.( members. Its a rap sheet that would be comically absurd if it wasnt so deadly serious. Im keen to see what /evidence0 the investigators have concocted to prove the allegations. (ut to date we have not been formally charged with any crime. .e are merely in detention to give them time to assemble their case so the prosecutor can decide if it is strong enough to take to court. Cnder )gypts &udicial system" we wont get to see the file until charges are formally laid. $o" all we have is what we did 9 a routine body of reporting on the political drama unfolding around us" and what it might mean for )gypt. 'he fact that this has put us behind bars is especially alarming given the historical moment )gypt now finds itself in. 'he current interim government emerged after widespread street protests and pressure from the military pushed )gypts first democratically elected president +ohamed+orsi from power. In the eyes of +orsis islamist group" the +uslim (rotherhood" it was a military coup? to the governments supporters it was a popular overthrow" with a little help from the military" of an administration that had broken its promises on moderation? created widespread discontent? cracked

down on descent" and was dragging )gypt towards a closed9minded theocracy. 'o defend the revolution )gyptians have &ust passed a fiercely liberal constitution that" amongst other things" explicitly DD freedom of the speech. %rticle 11 even expressly protects &ournalists from imprisonment for crimes committed through publishing or broadcast. (ut what constitutes a breach of the law in this case seems to be relative where anything too far beyond the bounds of normally accepted limits becomes a threat. It isnt that we pushed those limits after more than 2! years as a foreign correspondent" I know what is safe ground. %nd we didnt stray anywhere near that edge. (ut the state here seems to see its self in an existential struggle that pits the forces of good" open" free society against the islamist /terrorists0 still struggling to sei-e control. I that environment /normal0 has shifted so far from the more widely accepted /middle0 that our work suddenly appeared to be threatening. .e were not alone in our reporting" but our arrest has served as a chilling warning to others of where the middle is here. In this /new normal0" secular activists 9 including some of my prison neighbors 9 Ahave been imprisoned at least three times 9 first for opposing the now fallen autocrat 5osni +ubarak? then for protesting at the excesses of the short9lived +uslim (rotherhood administration and now for what they say is draconian overreach by the current government. *ampaigners putting up /no0 posters for the recent constitutional referendum are also in prison" as is anyone caught taking part in +uslim (rotherhood organi-ed protest 6the (rotherhood is now deemed to be a/ terrorist organi-ations07. In this /new normal0 anindependant agency reckons some 21"!!! had been arrested in the five months since +orsis ouster on <une >!" while 2"::8 people had been killed and almost 1:"!!! in&ured. %nd of course among the detained are &ournalists including ourselves" accused of supporting terrorism and undermining the state. Eet me be clear I have no desire to weaken )gypt nor in any way see it struggle. @or do I have any interest in supporting any group" the +uslim (rotherhood or otherwise. (ut then our arrest doesnt seem to be about our work at all. It seems to be about staking out what the government here considers to be normal and acceptable. %nyone who applauds the state is seen as safe anddeserving of liberty. %nything else is a threat that needs to be crushed.