Imprisonment of journalists

Early day motion 1111, tabled 4 November 2026 by John McDonnell (Labour). Signed by 1 member.

That this House is concerned by the recent level of violations of media freedom across the globe, and the number of journalists worldwide who are wrongfully imprisoned; joins the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate and the International Federation of Journalists in calling for the release of Abdallah Qadri, Mohamed Sharaf, Mohamed Adel, Islam Barakat, Mohamed Mahmoud and Omar Helal who work for Matsada2sh, an Egyptian fact-checking and news verification outlet, and who were arrested at their homes by security services on the basis of politically-motivated charges and taken to unknown locations; notes that this latest incident follows high profile cases such as that of Hong Kong democracy advocate Jimmy Lai, sentenced to twenty years imprisonment by the Chinese authorities, and lengthy imprisonment of Filipino journalist Frenchie Mae-Cumpio on spurious anti-terror charges; and calls on the UK Government to promote the merits of a new Convention on the Protection of Journalists and Media Workers at United Nations level, and ensure that the commitment to global media freedom is redoubled in order to bring such injustices to an end.

Signatures by party: Labour 1.