News presenters from around the world join campaign in support of journalists held in Egypt

ITN’s Mark Austin and Julie Etchingham joined some the world’s most prominent presenters from multiple news organisations in a video campaign in support of journalists being held in Egypt.

The broadcast of the message comes ahead of the court appearance in Cairo of three of the four Al Jazeera journalists who have been detained in Egypt for 85 days.

The film asks viewers to “imagine a world where reality is distorted, imagine being kept in the dark about major world events, and imagine being silenced when speaking out could save your life.”

The rare coming together of news organisations the film also features CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Channel Seven Australia’s Mark Ferguson, and Al Jazeera English’s Shiulie Ghosh.

The 40 second film ends with a collage of photos of journalists around the world muted as part of the FreeAJStaff campaign.

The hashtag #FreeAJStaff has been shared over 786 million times since it was launched during a day of action in Nairobi on 4th February.