Egyptian-born Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy has published a book about being jailed for collaborating with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. The Marriott Cell recounts the story of how he and his Al Jazeera colleagues were branded terrorists and spent more than a year behind bars before he was pardoned by President Abdul Fattah Al Sisi. The case grabbed headlines around the world and marked a key point in Egypt’s changing relationship with press freedom. This week’s African Media spoke to Mohamed Fahmy about his time in a notorious Cairo prison, how he had access to some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists and the message he would send to other journalists currently languishing in Egyptian jails. Can you tell us about your book? It basically includes details of my case and how I spent 438 days incarcerated in Egypt and branded as a terrorist while I was only doing my job as a journalist for Al Jazeera. It was interesting to write because it includes interviews with members of the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS [the Islamic State armed group] fighters and Al Qaeda fighters that I conducted and gathered inside prison. It also includes the battle for freedom - what we did to get out of prison - dealing with the courts, the judges, the lawyers. How this fight was complicated and wasn't just an issue of press freedom but also a geopolitical battle between Egypt and Qatar, the owner of Al Jazeera. I also highlight a lot of the mistakes that the network made as well and what they did that made our situation more difficult. What sort of position did Qatari ownership of Al Jazeera put you in? Qatar definitely kept us in the dark on many issues, for example, how Qatar had signed the Riyadh Agreement while we were working. Basically that means that the Qatari emir had promised countries in the Gulf like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain that he would not use the Al Jazeera platform to attack them. Qatar would not meddle in the internal affairs of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and many of these countries who were not happy with Al Jazeera. That he [the Qatari emir] would not allow Muslim Brotherhood guests to appear on the channel. However, we as journalists were not informed of these details of the Riyadh Agreement and were kept in the dark. This complicated matters for us. Having said that, I also believe that this trial was flawed with many mistakes. I spoke in court many times against the prosecution, I highlighted how they should differentiate between the responsibilities of the journalists and that of the network. Specifically, we found out in court that the network did not have the proper documents and they were not legally operating in Egypt in the first place. We were also kept in the dark about this issue. So I clearly document what both sides have done that led to our incarceration and it’s not acceptable that any journalist should be thrown in prison. Was writing this book a cathartic experience? It was definitely therapeutic in many ways. But I wrote this book specifically because although journalists like yourself and journalists from all over the world did a great job, there was so much context lost in the coverage of the trial. It’s almost understandable because of the rise of ISIS and the case happened when a lot of breaking news was happening. So much of the context of why we ended up in prison in the first place was not presented in the media. I just felt it was my responsibility to clarify a lot of the misconceptions to the millions of people who supported our case. Especially those related to issues of press freedom and how important it is to fight for that noble cause. But also issues related to the responsibilities of networks towards the journalists and towards the protection of journalists and that is something that Al Jazeera completely failed to do. This includes issues related to the protection of citizens,