Journalists of the Freedom and Justice Paper protested the banning and confiscation of the paper, describing the decision as illegal in a statement later on Thursday.
According to the statement, the paper had been previously confiscated; the first time was on 4 July, the day following what they call “the coup”. The statement added that the 200 journalists and staff had been working in “extremely stressful conditions”, as they have been suffering from “incessant police harassments”.
The statement listed the names of a number of its journalists who had died, been injured and detained while covering clashes. The statement then clarified the legality of the paper’s situation and asserted that it is supported by the legitimacy of the winning party in the elections, the party that “President Morsi belongs to”.
“We call on the head and board of the Press Syndicate to make an urgent statement about this ban, and we call on all the colleagues to support our justified case. We hereby announce that we will begin a strike in the Press Syndicate until we are capable of doing our job without any of the security’s interference.”
The Ministry of Interior gave a statement Thursday morning, announcing the ban of the Freedom and Justice Paper, which is considered one of the media outlets of the Freedom and Justice Party, the the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The interior ministry coordinated with state owned Al-Ahram, which prints the paper, and confiscated the printed issue of Thursday, 26 December.
The confiscation of the printed issue and the banning of the paper came as a consequence of the cabinet’sWednesday decision to list the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation.
