Egypt adjourns Jazeera journalists trial to March 5

CAIRO - Agence France-Presse

A court on Thursday adjourned the trial of Al-Jazeera journalists, including foreign reporters, to March 5, in a case that has sparked accusations of censorship against Egypt's military-installed government.
      
The journalists with the Doha-based satellite television, including Australian Peter Greste, are accused of supporting the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood and broadcasting false reports.
      
After opening the trial, the Cairo court said it will hear prosecution witnesses and consider the evidence at the next hearing.
     
The journalists present in the caged dock pleaded not guilty.
      
Eight out of 20 defendants are in custody, with the rest on the run or abroad.
      
Greste is the only foreign journalist who has been arrested. The other foreigners listed in the indictment are abroad and being tried in absentia.
      
They are Britons Sue Turton and Dominic Kane and Dutch journalist Rena Netjes, who was indicted even though she does not work for the channel.
      
Prosecutors say they falsely portrayed Egypt as being in a state of "civil war".
      
That was possibly a reference to Al-Jazeera's coverage of a crackdown in which more than 1,000 supporters of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who was toppled by the military in July, have since been killed in street clashes.
      
The government has designated the Brotherhood a terrorist organisation, although the group denies involvement in a spate of bombings since Morsi's overthrow.