JOURNALISTS do not make for the loudest protesters. The march to the Egyptian embassy in Nairobi to demand the release of Peter Greste, a correspondent for Al Jazeera English, and his two colleagues who have been detained in Egypt for more than a month, was a muted affair. It is awkward stepping onto the other side of the line of placards. Many of the 100 or so journalists present at the February 4th protest seemed unsure whether they were covering it or taking part. But the principle at stake was so obvious and so important that most did both.

Mr Greste, Al Jazeera English's East Africa correspondent, was arrested for doing, in his own words, some "pretty mundane reporting". He had attempted to give a balanced account of the tumult in Egypt by talking to all sides. This led to his arrest on December 29th along with two Egyptian colleagues, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Muhammad. Since then he has been in solitary confinement in Cairo's Tora prison. He is allowed out of his cell for only four hours a day. Egyptian courts have mentioned allegations of aiding a terrorist organisation and spreading false information, but official charges have yet to be made.

The protest, organised by the local foreign correspondents association and the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, a press-freedom lobby, took place in Kenya's capital because it is the city where Mr Greste lives and works. Many of those who marched up to Egypt's embassy on a quiet road lined with flowering trees in Nairobi's upmarket Kileleshwa suburb were his friends, colleagues and competitors. The signs they held, such as "We are all Peter Greste" reflect the growing unease at the repressive government in Cairo and its desire that only one story should be told about Egypt.

Mr Fahmy and Mr Muhammad, Mr Greste's producers, are accused of being members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood and are being held at the Scorpion prison on Cairo's outskirts, where many inmates are convicted terrorists. In an open letter from his prison cell, Mr Greste warned that Egypt had become a "state [that] will not tolerate hearing from the Muslim Brotherhood or any other critical voices".



In this context a few slogans and a letter from colleagues based in Kenya are unlikely to move Egyptian authorities. That was not really the point. Any one of the reporters and photographers, some of whom taped their mouths shut to protest against the silencing of journalists, could find themselves in Tora prison in the future if Mr Greste's detention is allowed to stand.