The Democracy Index organisation released a report on Tuesday documenting various types of violations, mainly committed by security forces between January to mid-May, and the April protests against the maritime demarcation deal with Saudi Arabia in particular.
The report documented 1,126 cases of violations against freedom of expression in just 136 days, and 850 people were arrested for expressing opinions and 182 received prison sentences, and the 48 demonstrations were dispersed. Also, 66 cases of information blackouts, 12 journalists were assaulted, and 12 incidents of media gags and off-air orders.
The report relied on five sources to document these violations and they included the Media Observatory for five diverse Egyptian newspapers, Fact Finding index committees, and online news websites and government websites.
The report also stated that among the violations against the press were the security forces unprecedented storming of the Press Syndicate headquarters, as well as verbal and physical abuse against journalists during coverage of the April protests.
On Sunday, the Journalists Against Torture Observatory (JATO) reported 97 violations committed against reporters and photojournalists when covering demonstrations.
The report recorded 17 violations that targeted foreign journalists out of the total 97. JATO noted that perpetrators mainly focused on privately-run newspapers and TV channels, whether local or international.
