i know this is old news, but my friend passed it along yesterday, and i'd never seen coverage of the situation in print before, just heard it from charles himself. i had been at his place the day before he left for istanbul and right after he had published the piece on torture which so raised the ire of the egyptian autocracy. when i found out he had then been detainedon his return, i was surprised, but in hindsight, his subsequent expulsion should have come as no surprise.

so just to remind people of the pressures journalists face when criticizing the regimes of the middle east, even when they are not citizens of said regime, a recap:

From: [vienna]

To: [istisharqiya]

Cc: [bergen], [berlin]

Date: Jun 24, 2005 8:52 AM

Subject: Is this 'our' Charles?

Did you guys know about this? It flashed me when I stumbled on it.

http://www.copts.net/detail.asp?id=501

V

Egypt bans journalist after jail torture stories

By Teresa Castle Charles Levinson, a San Francisco journalist who has written articles for The Chronicle from Egypt, has been barred from that country after writing articles on torture and deaths in Egyptian prisons. Reporters Without Borders called on Egyptian authorities this week to reverse the decision and allow the journalist to return to Cairo, where he had worked for more than a year for the Cairo Times and as a freelance reporter for American and Lebanese newspapers. Levinson was expelled Jan. 29 when he returned to Egypt from a trip to the United States. He was given no explanation for his expulsion and was not allowed to call the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. Cairo Times Publisher Hisham Kassem said the head of Egypt's state information services, Taha Abdel Aleem, told him Levinson was considered a threat to state security but refused to elaborate. "His explanation about the expulsion of Charles Levinson is unacceptable. This is libel and unfair," said Kassem, who is also president of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights. "They are sending a message to foreign journalists: Either you sing our praises or face Charles' fate." Levinson had been detained briefly in December at the Cairo airport when he returned from Istanbul after covering the aftermath of two Nov. 15 terrorist bombings. Before leaving for Turkey, Levinson had written an article based on Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reports on incidents of torture in Egyptian prisons and prison deaths of members of the Muslim Brotherhood, a political group that is officially banned but tolerated by the government, even serving in Parliament. He said he believes the article on torture was the impetus for the Egyptian security forces' decision to expel him. "I stand by everything I've written," Levinson told The Chronicle. "When you come to a country with idealistic intentions, hoping to do what you can to bridge differences and contribute, in however small a way, to increasing mutual understanding, and then get ejected from that country for honest reporting, well, it's disheartening." The Egyptian Consulate in Washington, D.C., did not respond to requests for comment from The Chronicle. Levinson was born in San Francisco and attended Lowell High School and UC San Diego. He moved to Egypt in August 2002. Joel Campagna, senior program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said the group has contacted Egyptian authorities regarding the case. "We are deeply concerned about the expulsion," Campagna said in a statement, "and demand an explanation from the Egyptian government for this action." Tala Dowlatshahi, U.S. representative for the watchdog group Reporters Without Borders, said several other foreign journalists have been threatened or detained in the past year, including a reporter for the Canadian daily The Press and a photographer for the British paper The Mail on Sunday, who were covering protests against the war in Iraq last April. Copyright 2004 The Chronicle Publishing Co. The San Francisco Chronicle FEBRUARY 19, 2004, THURSDAY, FINAL EDITION