Egyptian TV Host Breaks a Pencil on Air to Protest Prison Sentence for Journalists

Egyptian TV host Muhammad Al-Dasuqi Rushdi found an original way to protest the sentence handed down against the chairman of the Egyptian journalists' syndicate and two other members. Declaring that "a picture is worth a thousand words," he broke a pencil live on air on his November 20 Saturday show before cutting to a commercial break. Earlier that day, a Cairo court had given syndicate chairman Yehia Qallash and board members Khaled al-Balshy and Gamal Abdel Rahim a two-year prison sentence, setting bail at 10,000 Egyptian pounds each, for "harboring a fugitive," according to news reports.

Muhammad Al-Dasuqi Rushdi: "Good evening and welcome to the Saturday episode of our show. Today, on November 19 - Saturday, November 19 - the head of the Egyptian journalists' syndicate and two board members were sentenced to two years' imprisonment and bail was set at 10,000 Egyptian pounds. Regardless of the details of the case, regardless of your position on the case, and regardless of your differences of opinion as to the way the journalists' syndicate handled the crisis... Regardless of the details, what happened today will, sadly, go down in history when it comes to freedom of the press - or perhaps, to aggression against the press. A long time ago, we were taught that a picture is worth a thousand words. Our lecturers on journalism taught us that a picture is worth a thousand words, and they also taught us that there are issues in which arguments and rhetoric are to no avail, because the issue and the events are greater than a million words. Our image today is worth a million words. Perhaps my words are annoying you, so let me leave you with the image alone - so that I won't annoy anybody. Let's take a commercial break."