Media Help Set Free Arrested U.S.-Egyptian Filmmaker Jehane Noujaim In Cairo

Award-winning Egyptian American documentary filmmaker Jehane Noujaimbest known for her films Control Room, Mokattam, Startup.com, was arrested and later released after participating in one of Cairo’s protest uprisings, according to news reports.Noujaim was interviewing a military officer when the arrest took place and was accused of being a spy for Israel and a traitor.Noujaim and others were reportedly charged with congregation and destruction of public property. She was freed after the Committee to Protect journalists appealed to Egyptian authorities to let her go and correspondents for newspapers like The Guardian and The NY Times took up her cause. She is well known to international media because Noujaim’s 2004 Control Room examined the U.S. military’s relations with Al Jazeera and other news organizations that covered the 2003 invasion of Iraq. She also won theTED Prize, granted to people trying to change the world, and launched the videoconference Pangea Day.