To china and mexico. Plus, a look at how were not blameless in the u. S. President obamas aggressive are are attack on are journalists. Heres more on whats ahead. Worldwide outrage today aan egyptian core has are convicted three journalists. For doing their job. Aiding the Muslim Brotherhood. All three of them vehemently deny those charges. The white house is condemning the verdicts. The prosecution of journalists for reporting, flowts the most basiflouts the. Freedom of expression. There are currently 167 journalists in prison around the world. What is going on here . What about freedom of the press . We begin with the ruling that has outraged journalists and activists around the world. Three al jazeera journalists have been convicted in egypt on charges of conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood, spreading false news and endangering national security. Peter greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed have denied the charges. The three men were sentenced to seven years in prison on those charges. Baher mohamed was given an additional three years because of possession of a spent bullet casing he found on the ground. Andrew greste was in the courtroom for the verdict. We knew it was a possibility that you just cant prepare yourself no matter how hard you think about it for a verdict like this. The United Nations called the verdict obscene while the white house called for Egyptian Government to grant immediate pardons. But the verdict called into question the obama influence in egypt. Secretary of state john kerry traveled ocairo sunday and are impressed great support for egyptian Prime Minister abdel fatah alsisi. 24 hours later kerry seemed stunned when reacting to the verdict while visiting baghdad. Todays verdict is a chilling and draconian sentence. It is deeply disturbing to see in the midst of egypts transition. Joining us here in new york is sharif mansour, sharif cofounded the Egyptian Association for change, a nonprofit that mobilizes egyptians in the u. S. , good to see you again. Same. You were convicted for prodramatic activities there. Do you have no doubt that the egyptian judiciary is not acting with deliberation . This is on journalist related cases that we have seen in egypt. These journalists are part of at least a group of 14 other journalists who remain behind bars without charges, without evidence and some of them have spent as many as ten months without a chance to defend themselves in front of court. There is already another journalist who worked w with the Muslim Brotherhood, and today there was news of another journalist who was sentenced as well for their coverage. It is consistent with i think a whole attitude of the government for judiciary, against journalists for just doing their work. There are other journalists who are in prison, others tried in absentia. Is this a clear message of the people of egypt and journalists that there is simply not going to be any dissent tolerated in egypt . Absolutely, that is the main purpose, they want to send a message to journalists they should tow the line. Narrative of events in egypt, that is a strategy that the regime has indicated, the minute they ousted president ial morsi last year, they shut down at least six tv stations took them off the air and immediately started to enforce a widespread crack down and censorship effort on both government and nongovernment on media. So it also consisted with their strategy, but also, their vilification campaign. The government has been trying as much as possible to portray al jazeera, other critical voices, of being agents of outside forces who wants to destabilize the country, agents that promote violence, and also, promote terrorism. And thats what the recent situation of this case, that for the first time now, we have that many number of people, including in our count six journalists who have been for the first time accused of terrorism related charges and taking as many as the harsh sentence that we saw up to 10 years. This is unprecedented. Just for doing their job. As you say theres express censorship and then this, you send a clear message that if you dont behave yourself in a way that they look you end up with this kind of problem. Received a message today a letter signed by dozens of news organizations individuals from egypt, cairo, Foreign Press journalists who are based in cairo, telling us that they were shocked by this. And they wanted solidarity and they warranted to send a wanted to send a message to this dont saying, please release those journalists. They are certainly getting solidarity from around the world. Peter greste is australian. The Australian Government has complained. One of the other journalists is canadian, the canadian government has complained. The white house, theres outrage from around the world. The problem is, will the Egyptian GovernmentPay Attention to that outrage . Right now they cant ignore it. Right now when we were talking about press violations, the fact that there wasnt an elected president in power there was a shared responsibility among a lot of actors. But now alsisi has been elected less than a month ago and he is now at the forefront. He is the one who has been held responsible and hes the one who shakes hand with all those policy makers and International Figures around the world who are condemning this attack of the press. So now its his responsibility he may not get to shake too many hands if he continues to cause this kind of outrage. And talking about outrage, Abdullah Alshami another al jazeera journalist was held in a prison for most of the year, he had been having a hunger strike, and they eventually let him out. Reaction to this statement. With Abdullah Alshamis release last week there was no celebration in the release of a journalist who was innocent and without charming. There was huge relief. But today, we see a huge injustice, the sentencing for so many years, for journalists who were doing with what . Simply the job of being great journalists. And we should say that in this case, there was no evidence of any significance that was presented publicly. In fact one of the things they were accusing them of one report that was referred to was the report that was filed when they werent even in egypt. And by other workers by al jazeera. They werent even there. Thats why everyone was thinking this case is embarrassing the government more than anything else. The more they dragged it on, the more people thought okay it is a matter of time before they shut it down. But the fact there was a conviction is an added like verdict against this government, that they are this have no shame first of all. They dont care about their credibility and they are willing to go as far as handing out these harsh sentences just to get their way with local and international media. Talk about no shame. This is a Statement Released monday by the foreign ministry. They said the Egyptian Foreign Ministry strongly rejects any comments from a foreign party, on the justice of its verdicts and that it affirms that any interference in its internal affairs is recorrected and this is what the foreign minister confirmed with contacts with several parties recently. Could it be that they dont care that this reflects that badly on egypt . I think well see how the government reacts. There are opportunities now for government to issue an amnesty, a pardon and accept the appeal. Hopefully . Theyll do that in a fast manner because the judiciary in egypt is very slow. But at least giving an appeal, accepted, and until there is an appeal session would be an immediate step to see if they really care about engagement with the outside world and they really think that they should have a credible leader, leading the country. President alsisi, in his Election Campaign has said that he wants to reestablish egypts role and reform the relationship with a lot of leaders of international community. And thats an opportunity. And thats just his first challenge as a president is handling this crisis. Its in his hand. And we should say that 183 Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers were sentenced to death with pretty much summary trials this weekend. So it was not just the journalists who were suffering from pretty quick and questionable justice. Sharif, pleasure to have you with us to share your thoughts. Thank you for having me. Turning into the obamass response to obama administrations seven and ten year sentences, despite the harshness of the verdicts, secretary of state john kerry said he hoped there would be response to step in. I think it will be critical in terms of the objectives of his presidency for him to move quickly to try to address the International Concerns that exist with respect to this kind of a decision. For more on u. S. Relations with egypt and whether the u. S. Can put real pressure on cairo, im joined from washington, d. C. By ambassador kurt volker, assistant secretary of state for european and eurasian affairs. Secretary kerry said it was critical to address the circumstances but as far as egypt, the judiciary is independent. What do you think about that . He is pursuing a ves deliberate strategy of going after the Muslim Brotherhood, going after any journalists who would report openly about egypt, particularly those that report on the Muslim Brotherhood, in order to establish a firm military control and his own control over the government of egypt. He has great Popular Support in doing so, so he doesnt feel much domestic pressure to change course, and actually the real pressure he feels, is not really putting pressure on egypt economically militarily politically that would cause him to change course. Get to more of that in a moment. But alsisi could just pardon them if he wanted to. He could, but he wants the judiciary to play this out. What weve seen is the judiciary playing a role in support of alsisi and the form he military leader and the current military control over egypt. I think there legitimately was a great concern in egypt over the excesses of the Muslim Brotherhood and morsis leadership of the country and we are now seeing a backlash against that. Unfortunately it is a backlash that is very repressive and very undemocratic. On sunday, secretary kerry confirmed that the u. S. Was resuming the 1. 3 billion in aid. Secretary kerry said i came here to reaffirm the Historic Partnership between the United States and egypt. The United States remains deeply committed to seeing egypt succeed. But among the aid were giving them apache helicopters. With that aid and those choppers did we give away whatever leverage we had . Unfortunately i think the u. S. Is caught in a very difficult position right now. On the one hand we do not want to cut off our relationship with egypt, and by default have egypt develop a relationship with russia and other authoritarian regimes. And have less of a contact than we do today. On the other hand, if you go forward with the relationships, we are telling Egyptian Forces that we dont care what you do on human rights. What we need to do is have a tougher human rights agenda, and we are willing to step up more pressure and thats not something weve seen. How much clout do we have . I think we should use those relationships as well. By default as a way of retreating and getting out of the middle east, weve lost influence with the saudi arabia with turkey with the uae, that the United States is deeply engaged and that makes us a credible pattern with saudi arabia, turk uae qatar and others in trying to create a middle course between really unsavory secular leaders and really unsavory islam u. S. Extremists. Secretary kerry said alsisi gave him radio strong commitment to the judicial process. This all happened on sunday. It certainly seems meaningless given what happened on monday. So why would alsisi do that . Because in a way isnt it embarrassing secretary kerry . I think thats what secretary kerry wanted to hear so thats what alsisi told hip. The key thing for United States is to look at the actions not the words. And in this case weve seen the actions and then the u. S. Actions in response appear to have been fairly benign and i think thats exactly what alsisi expected. Now lets listen to what White House Press secretary josh earnest had to say. We call on the Egyptian Government to pardon these individuals or are reduce their sentences. Starting with the other defendants in this trial. Now earnest in those comments was including not just the al jazeera journalists and other journalists who are being held in prison but the thousands of people that the egyptians have thrown into jail for political reasons. By including all of those people en masse did he weaken the case to help the journalists themselves . Well, no, i dont think so. In fact i think its good that he raised it. The problem that i see here is that we call upon egypt to do these things but then, whats the consequence if they dont . And thats where i think there ought to be not only a carrot in the form of renewing this aid if egypt does right thing, there ought to be a sick, that says no were not going to renew it, we might even increase the amount we hold in reserve, we have seen u. S. Policy that is unwilling to yield a stick in that way. Back in the ways of the cold war, alsisi has met with vladimir putin. Vladimir putins shadow has seemed to be everywhere. Egypt was a soviet clinton during much of the cold war. Is al si su playing is United States against russia like the cold war . Hes clearly trying oplay that middle ground. I think the u. S. Needs to call that bluff and say look, you can have a future connected to russia. Thats not going to be very productive for egypt or productive for you. Or alternatively, you can have a relationship with us thats based on the right principles. Ambassadoimor, thank you. Lets check in with hermella. Freeajstaff has been trending. Used over 70,000 times on monday alone. Journalists are tweeting photos with tapes over their mouths, indicating silencing of journalists across the globe. Are in our headquarters doha qatar, al jazeera will be holding a meeting. Post your comments using the hashtag, freeaj staff. Where journalistic freedom is a distant dream and going to china and mexico to tell you where reporters are being shut down or even killed. And the u. S. World Freedom Index plummet in recent years. With Joe Berlinger new york city has stop and frisk some say these laws help serve and protect. We created the atmosphere that the policemans the bad guy. Others say these tactics are racist discrimination is wrong 99 percent of those arrested in Drug Free School zones. Were not near a school at all are they working . This time im gonna fight it. The system with Joe Burlinger only on Al Jazeera America welcome back to a special edition of consider this. Journalism is not a crime. Considering the sentencing of our journalist beings. In egypt. Meantime many journalists face risks in the muslim world. Joining us from madrid spain is ahmed ra rasheed. Are he is a board member of the committee to protect journalists. It is really a pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you for joining us. You have been forced to flee pakistan three times because of Death Threats from both the taliban and Government Security forces. What did you publish that made you a target and how have you felt comfortable to be able to return . Well, its been be either criticism of the taliban or criticism of the military in pakistan for intervening in afghanistan and for their policies in afghanistan. Which the military obviously didnt like. And its each instance of my departure and return has been very complex negotiations and talks and the engagement of diplomats and officials and the media. And senior journalists in pakistan as well. So its been complicated. The situation in pakistan is very grim. And what i fear from what this judgment today is that i think what the egyptian president has done is going to encourage a lot of hard line regimes in the broader muslim world to take similar measures. And this is going to be very tragic. Its not just the message thats sent by putting people in prison. Youre part of a group from the committee to protect journalists that met with pakistan Prime Minister sharif in march, to get him to decrease the deteriorating climate for journalists there, but the situation has gotten worse, theres been expulsion of journalists and assassinations, and raza rumi who almost got killed himself. Its not getting any better. The promises made by president sharif to us, he made a lot of very serious commitments and promises and they were just not kept. Youre absolutely right. I mean in the short span since march the 19th when we met with him, to journalists have been shot and wounded, including reza rumi, one driver was killed, two foreign journalists have been expelled from the country and the largest tv station in the country was taken off the air for 15 days. Now its allowed back on the air, Cable Operators are refusing to run it because theyre scared of reaction from the government and the military. So the press is in a very, very precarious way at a time when the government and the military needs support from the media because of this offensive that theyre carrying on at the moment against the Pakistani Taliban and estremists. Lets go across the border.