(MENAFN- The Peninsula) World leaders attending the 69th UN General Assembly session have emphasised the freedom of the press and asked Egypt to release three detained Al Jazeera journalists.
President Barack Obama expressed concern over the fate of the three jailed journalists on his first meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, Al Sharq reported.
Obama and Sisi met on Thursday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York, as the two countries sought common ground after a period of turmoil caused by the toppling of Egypt's first elected president, Mohamed Mursi, last year.
Ben Rhodes, the US deputy national security adviser, said that the US president raised a number of specific concerns related to human rights, including the right to free speech and the rights of the Al Jazeera journalists, saying that they should be freed.
Australian Peter Greste, Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were convicted in June after being accused of aiding the Muslim Brotherhood. Greste and Fahmy received seven-year terms while Mohamed was sentenced to 10 years.
During the General Assembly session in New York, similar calls for Egypt to release the three journalists were made by British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond, who said: "On the question of Al Jazeera journalists, I've raised this question personally with President Sisi. I raise it every time I see Foreign Minister Shoukry. The current situation is that the journalists have, as I understand it, appealed their convictions and that means this remains at the present time a judicial process. And we have to respect the separation of judicial and executive power. Once that judicial process is complete, if that sentence still stands, we would look to the executive to intervene and ensure they are released."
As part of a campaign to increase awareness of the jailing of the Al Jazeera trio, an advertisement was placed in the New York Times and at Times Square New York to remind the Egyptian leader and other officials that the three men have been arrested, detained, charged and sentenced for just doing their job of honest, free and fair reporting.
Commenting on president Obama's call for the release of the Al Jazeera staff, an Al Jazeera spokesperson said that calls for the release of Al Jazeera staff had previously been made from the White House, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the European Union, the Australian Government and over 150 rights groups.
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