Photojournalist Ahmed Ramadan of privately owned Tahrir newspaper was acquitted of belonging to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood by the prosecution on Monday after paying a bail of EGP 5,000.
Dozens of journalists had protested in front of the Press Syndicate in response to Ramadan’s arrest, demanding his release.
Ramadan was investigated by the prosecution after a fellow journalist from Al-Youm Al-Sabaa newspaper reported him to security forces as a Muslim Brotherhood member. The report was filed during a ‘Morsi espionage’ trial session after a personal dispute, according to witnesses.
The Al-Youm Al-Sabaa journalist was banned from entering the syndicate by its board of directors. In addition, the Al-Youm Al-Sabaa editorial board launched an investigation into her action, according to the paper’s website.
During interrogations, Ramadan was further charged with impersonating a journalist as he was not carrying an official press pass. However, according to witnesses, Ramadan went directly into the court as he “did not notice the officer who was handing photojournalists an entry pass”. He was also acquitted of that charge.
Freedom of the press in Egypt has deteriorated over the past two years, as dozens of other journalists have been arrested.
A recent report by the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), entitled “The Forbidden Right”, documented 658 violations against journalists, with 258 instances of preventing journalists from performing their duty, the most recurrent violation during that year.
As the situation for press freedom in Egypt remains under scrutiny, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi continues to overlook journalists’ voices demanding their rights and an immediate end of imprisonment.
Al-Sisi, who met Monday with an African delegation of editors-in-chief, made assurances on press freedom amid the socio-political situation of the country, which the president believes to be “free” and “stable”.
He told journalists that Egypt respects and appreciates the role of the media and ensures press freedom. “There are no restrictions on it,” he said as he pointed to the “credible and patriotic coverage of local media”.
This follows the massive media coverage that came along the “gigantic” opening of the New Suez Canal, which sought to propagate the event as a huge success for the country. Nonetheless, this does not rule out that Al-Sisi is barely criticised in the media at other times. Needless to say, this “patriotic” media believes in adopting an aggressive tone against any politically opposed voice through a campaign of “betrayal and mistrust”.
As has always been the case in Egypt, the president and his regime act on the grounds that the media is the state’s propaganda tool, supposedly meant to embellish, praise, and even worship the leader. Since the president finds the media to be “reliable” and “positively fulfilling its role”, one wonders why the media has been struggling to maintain its freedom after the state found that it failed to provide “accurate information” on insurgent operations in North Sinai early July.
The issue that came to the forefront under Al-Sisi’s presidency is the army’s withholding of information on, for instance, casualties in its counterterrorism operations, despite the media’s eagerness to report on these matters.
In addition to blaming media for its “inaccuracy”, it was insinuated that, to a certain extent, they have aided “terrorism propaganda”, which resulted in further restrictions on the press, as stated in a new anti-terrorism draft law.
Further, the State Information Services (SIS), in charge of foreign press affairs, was tasked with sending out emails to foreign correspondents “to correct their stories”. Not surprisingly, the SIS was also present in Al-Sisi’s meeting with the African journalists.
What is even more troubling for press freedom in Egypt is that the president continues to firmly assert to outsiders that no journalist is in prison, while over 18 Egyptian journalists are behind bars, including some who have been sentenced to life in prison.
The president finds it convenient to justify himself by stating that, firstly, nobody is in prison for publishing crimes, and secondly, that the ongoing trials of journalists – which he finds discomforting –started “before he took leadership of the country”.
The president must be familiar with the name Mahmoud Abu Zeid ‘Shawkan’, who spent 10 months in jail before the presidential elections , and 13 more since Al-Sisi’s official inauguration in June 2014. The detained photojournalist will soon complete two years behind bars without trial, and nobody knows how many more he will spend “under the president’s term”.
Moreover, in a clear reference to the Al Jazeera journalists’ case, Al-Sisi reiterated previous statements that he “would rather deport journalists to their countries”. However, this too is highly problematic. For one, it was Al-Sisi who issued the law allowing the deportation of foreign defendants. Nevertheless, Al Jazeera’s Canadian Mohamed Fahmy, who was pressured into dropping his Egyptian nationality, is still restricted from travelling.
Further, with Al-Sisi’s attention focused on foreign journalists, the fate of detained Egyptian journalists is neglected. The truth is that under his presidency, journalists may not be persecuted for publishing crimes for the most part, but they are being prosecuted for and while doing their jobs nonetheless. Their imprisonment is an indicator of a decline in press freedom, and not the opposite.
Al-Sisi speaks as though, under his presidency, no one has read local and international reports assessing Egypt’s freedoms. In turn, he makes no point to state otherwise, and there has been no progress towards making a real difference.
A young French student from a Parisian university was deported from Egypt last Friday after being arrested by security forces, in apparent relation to her research on the 6 April youth movement.
The student, who wishes to be known by ‘Fanny’, attends a course of political sociology at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris. She says herself and a friend were staying in the Nile Delta city of Damietta to interview members of the movement for her master’s degree when on 2 July a unit of 10 police and intelligence officers arrested Fanny from her hotel room during the night.
Fanny said that, after her arrest, she was taken to Damietta police station where she stayed for four hours while officers examined her computer, phone and bags. The student was accompanied by military, police, and intelligence officers in a minibus to Cairo, where they had her visa cancelled at the Mogamma El-Tahrir government services building.
After purchasing a plane ticket, Fanny was driven to Cairo International Airport where she spent the evening in a ‘deportation department’.
“I think I was arrested because I was noticed in Damietta and they wondered why I was there. It is a small city, everything is known. But I feel when they did arrest me they knew exactly what I was doing and that I was in touch with 6 April,” Fanny told Daily News Egypt on Tuesday. She believes she was known to Egypt’s security authorities long before the night of the arrest.
“There was already a French translator with them, who was there from the beginning when I was arrested from my room. They only asked questions about me, not about the movement, as if they already knew about what I was researching,” the student said.
“I was surprised to be arrested because I am only a 2nd year master’s student, but also I am not surprised because of the situation in Egypt, and 6 April is a banned movement. The only reason that I was told by those who arrested me was ‘we are arresting you for your own security’,” she told Daily News Egypt.
The 6 April movement was a key pro-democratic protest force during the 25 January Revolution and subsequent demonstrations. However, following a crackdown on activism after the July 2013 regime change, the movement was largely driven underground, and in 2014 it was outlawed entirely.
Attempts to get comments from the Ministry of Interior on the nature of the student’s arrest were not successful.
Daily News Egypt spoke to a press officer at the French Embassy in Cairo who said that she had no information about the case.
Fanny said that the French embassy got in touch with her, after her friend who was staying in the hotel informed them of her arrest. “They asked me what I was doing and then told me ‘I hope you have enough money for a flight or you will be spending a night in prison’,” she said.
According to the student, no diplomatic representatives met her in person to directly speak with her. Following the arrest, Egyptian authorities allowed her to receive two calls, but she was denied the right to call her embassy.
“I do not really feel like I received any support at all from the French embassy, they just do not want any trouble I guess, maybe they thought it was my own fault. I am still trying to get in touch with them to find out the reason why I was deported, or at least the official one, but they keep evading me,” she said. “I don’t think I will be able to come back to Egypt, maybe in 10 years. They do not want journalists and researchers to put their noses in.”
In June, the correspondent of a leading Spanish daily newspaper El Pais was forced to make an emergency departure from Egypt on advice that local authorities were preparing to arrest him. Ricard Gonzalez said he was “forced to leave Egypt against [his] will”, on advice from Spanish authorities that Egypt was preparing to bring charges against him, though this was denied by Egypt.
Also in June, director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms Mohamed Lotfy had his passport confiscated and was prevented from travelling to Germany, where he was due to speak at a parliament discussion on the human rights situation in Egypt. The denial of travel by Egyptian authorities took place the same day that President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi began an official visit to Germany.
A Cairo Court renewed Monday the pre-trial detention of Al-Masriya photojournalist Wagdy Ghaly for a further 15 days.
Ghaly was arrested during the funeral of former Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat whilst taking photographs outside the Omar Makram Mosque in Downtown Cairo.
Barakat was assassinated last week, after being targeted in a bombing in Heliopolis.
Ghaly, who worked for the pro-government online website Al-Masriya, was charged with “joining a terrorist group”.
The prosecution is currently investigating the case, and is awaiting the investigations of the Homeland Security apparatus. Ghaly is a member of the Egyptian Online Journalists’ Syndicate, an unofficial syndicate that aims to protect the rights of online journalists, but has limited effect due to not being recognised by the state.
A colleague of Ghaly’s, who preferred anonymity, said that the syndicate did not legally intervene to assist the journalist. He added that “in cases of belonging to a syndicate or showing identifications that you are a journalist you can easily get arrested”.
The journalist said that many young reporters thrive to join syndicates in the journalism business to guarantee legal safety. However, when it comes to “terrorism related charges, they will be in trouble”.
Last Wednesday, three journalists were arrested whilst covering the killings of nine Muslim Brotherhood members at the forensic authority. Al-Shaab newspaper reporter Hamdy Al-Zaeem, freelance reporter Sherif Ashraf, and Al-Tahrir newspaper reporter Mohamed Adly are two of the three journalists arrested.
They were released on Thursday, only to be re-arrested Friday evening. They are facing charges of working for Al Jazeera channel and belonging to a terrorist organisation. The three journalists were detained in the Sayeda Zeinab police station, and there was an investigation by the State Security apparatus.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the number of detained journalists in Egypt is currently the highest since 1991.
Of the 18 journalists currently imprisoned, one-third have been handed life-sentences. Most are accused of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, as “the government abuses the anti-terrorism law”, the organisation, which works to safeguard journalists, said.
Because of Egypt’s heavy restrictions on journalists and press freedom, places like Sinai are underreported. A veteran reporter told the CPJ: “Journalism is over in Sinai… the only reporting we can do is tell the army’s story. Anything else is a prison wish.”
In a recent development, the Press Syndicate’s council expressed concern over articles related to the press in the expected new terrorism law.
During last weeks’ violent clashes between militants and the Egyptian army in Sinai, local and international news outlets reported more than 50 army causalities, a figure criticised by the Egyptian government and the Foreign Ministry.
The proposed law stipulates that publishing news or information on terrorist attacks that conflicts with official statements would be a crime punishable by a minimum of two years imprisonment.
The correspondent of leading Spanish daily newspaper El Pais was forced to make an emergency departure from Egypt mid-June on advice that local authorities were preparing to arrest him.
Ricard Gonzalez said he was “forced to leave Egypt against [his] will”, on advice that Egypt was preparing to bring charges against him.
Gonzalez told Daily News Egypt by telephone on Tuesday: “Two weeks ago I had to leave Egypt in a rush, the country that I have called home for almost four years. The Spanish authorities warned me that I was under the imminent risk of being arrested and indicted, and they advised me not to go back to Cairo.”
The journalist said that he still does not “have a clue why [he] was singled out among a group of foreign correspondents.”
“I have had contacts with the opposition, as have many of my colleagues. My newspaper, the Spanish El Pais, has been very critical with the current regime in its editorials, and I have written several articles on the violations of human rights in the country. But so have other outlets,” he said.
Gonzalez says that he has worked in Cairo for several media outlets, but primarily for El Pais since September 2011, and worked as correspondent in Washington between 2007 and 2011 for the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
El Pais is yet to make a statement, but Gonzalez is preparing an account of his story to be published in the coming days. A press spokesperson at the Spanish Embassy in Cairo said: “As far as the embassy is concerned, there is no comment on this matter.”
The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was unavailable for comment at the time of publishing.
“It may have to do with the fact that I wrote a book with the title ‘The Rise and Fall of the Muslim Brotherhood’,” Gonzalez said. “We should not forget that Emad Shahin, a distinguished professor at Columbia University specialised in Islamist movements, was recently condemned to the death penalty. However, my book was published in early March and it did not offer a positive view of the Brotherhood.”
Having met with “vague” information from the Spanish authorities over the nature of the threat, Gonzalez decided to go public on Tuesday in a hope that public pressure will bring more transparency to the case. “They have not disclosed much about what information they have or don’t have,” Gonzalez said. “As far as I know, it is the first time that this happens since the Al Jazeera case.”
“I was very surprised, since President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has said several times that in case of troubles, foreign journalists should be deported, not judged,” Gonzalez said.
In 2014, Dutch journalist Rena Netjes fled Egypt after it emerged that she was one of a group of 20 journalists who were accused of “fabricating news” and participating in a terrorist plan. Also charged in the case were the three Al Jazeera journalists who spent over a year in jail before their release. Australian Peter Greste has left the country, but the retrial is ongoing for Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy.
Despite Egyptian authorities commonly berating foreign correspondents for negative coverage of Egypt, they have sought to apologise for the case of the Al Jazeera journalists. However, rights campaigners highlight an ongoing crackdown on democratic freedoms in the country.
Abou Zeid, commonly known as Shawkan, is suffering from Hepatitis-C, according to his mother. She said that, whilst the 27-year-old suffered from the disease prior to his detention, he has been denied appropriate medical treatment. (Photo Courtesy of Official Freedom for Shawkan Campaign page.)
The mother of photojournalist Mahmoud Abou Zeid who has been detained awaiting trial for almost two years has told Daily News Egypt that his health is deteriorating. They are also considering a sit-in to raise further attention to his case.
Abou Zeid, commonly known as Shawkan, is suffering from Hepatitis-C, according to his mother. She said that, whilst the 27-year-old suffered from the disease prior to his detention, he has been denied appropriate medical treatment.
“He is pale, looking very ill,” she said.
The family have announced that they will begin a sit-in at Cairo’s journalist syndicate, calling for his release.
On 20 June, the Cairo Criminal Court renewed the pre-trial detention of the photojournalist for a further 45 days.
Abou Zeid has been detained with 300 others for almost two years without trial. He was arrested while covering the security forces’ dispersal of pro-Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins in August 2013.
In a letter from prison to the newly elected head of the syndicate Yehia Qallash, Abou Zeid said: “My body sweats continuously, losing consciousness for few minutes [has become] a habit on daily basis, my weak body, full of disease became helpless to me to continue bearing hard imprisonment for two years without any guilt except bearing my camera to shoot events…Death is better than what I am suffering inside my prison.”
Shawkan ended his letter by saying to Qallash: “I told you how I am living in death inside my prison, so that you can imagine how other colleagues suffer inside their prisons do. I am not asking you to care about my situation, my health or my case. I ask you to care about cases of other colleague journalists.”
On Sunday, during a protest in support of Abou Zeid at the Press Syndicate, Qallash responded saying the syndicate is preparing a detailed list to send to the presidency of detained journalists. Abou Zeid’s name will also be on the list. Qallash also told reporters that he will follow up on Shawkan’s case, and expressed his solidarity with detained journalists.
In May, for the first time, Abou Zeid appeared before a judge to be arraigned, the judge renewed his detention. He still has not officially been charged with any crime.
“It is without logic, without a trial and lawless. Simply, an accusation on a piece of paper has jailed me without an investigation. Time passes and years are wasted between these four walls,” the photojournalist wrote in a previous letter from prison.
On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it discovered that Egyptian authorities were holding at least 18 journalists behind bars for their reporting. It said that was the highest in the country since the CPJ began recording data on imprisoned journalists in 1990.
However, some local journalists including Khaled El-Belshy, head of the freedoms committee at the Press Syndicate, believes the figure is closer to 30. The CPJ reported last year that around 12 journalists were detained in 2014. This year, alone, a reported 18 journalists were sentenced during the ‘Rabaa operations room’ case, including Waleed Abdel-Raouf Shalabi, a writer for the Freedom and Justice Party newspaper who was given a death sentence on charges including spreading false information about the state.
Senior Al Jazeera journalist Ahmed Mansour has been released by German authorities, avoiding a possible extradition to Egypt (Photo from Ahmed Manosur official Page)
Senior Al Jazeera journalist Ahmed Mansour has been released by German authorities, avoiding a possible extradition to Egypt, according to his employer news network.
The well-known presenter was detained at Berlin’s Tegel Airport Saturday afternoon apparently in relation to a legal case in Egypt for which he received a 15-year prison sentence in 2014. In the case, he stood trial for the alleged torture and electrocution of a lawyer in Tahrir Square during the 25 January Revolution. Both Mansour and the Qatari media network deny the charges.
In a series of tweets on Monday afternoon, Al Jazeera announced had been released and was meeting with his lawyer.
Egyptian Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat had reportedly called on both Interpol and the German authorities to facilitate Mansour’s extradition to Egypt.
In comments reported by Anadolu Agency, Fazli Altin, a member of Mansour’s legal defence team, said that despite a German ruling Sunday that the detention was legal, the case looked optimistic. Atlin said he expected Mansour’s release at some point on Monday, following an investigation.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman told a press conference on Monday that no person is to be extradited from Germany if they could face the death penalty at their destination country. “I don’t think one can say this loudly enough: of course, nobody will be extradited from Germany who risks being sentenced to death abroad,” Martin Schaefer said.
Mansour’s detention has provoked outrage from German civil society and the political opposition.
Michael Konken, President of the German Federation of Journalists, called for Mansour’s release and said: “I am upset because we don’t know how countries like Egypt arrive at the kind of charges Mr Mansour is facing. We don’t know whether these charges are motivated by the fact that he reported critically about the government – a government that then came up with charges and accusations to silence this journalist.”
“In a situation like this, a journalist who finds himself in Germany must be protected and must not be extradited to a country which both has the death penalty in its statutes and enforces it as well,” Konken said.
In comments reported by local press, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at Western countries, saying: “European states, which leave Turkey alone in fighting terrorism and condone terrorist organisation members, unfortunately behaves very differently over a request by coup stagers…Why? Because Egyptian generals ordered so. Why? Egypt gave an €8.5bn order.”
Mansour’s arrest came two weeks after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi was received by Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany. During the trip, Al-Sisi signed off a €10bn deal with engineering giant Siemens to build gas and wind power plants in Egypt.
Protests in solidarity were held Sunday outside the prison where Mansour is held, reported to have around 100 in attendance.
Al Jazeera, which is Qatar’s main media outlet, fell out with the Egyptian government after the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, due to the network’s coverage of the 30 June events. Qatar, Al Jazeera, and Egypt have since had numerous diplomatic fallouts, with Al-Sisi’s regime accusing Doha of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood organisation.
Three Al Jazeera English journalists spent over a year in an Egyptian prison on charges of aiding a banned group after the ejection of the Brotherhood government. In February, Australian Peter Greste was deported, but two of his colleagues, Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy, still face retrial.
Sewiliam while receiveing the Nile Media Award (Handout Photo)
Egyptian TV journalist Mona Sweilam won first place at the Nile Media Awards for her coverage of the conflicts and negotiations surrounding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
Sweilam’s in-depth coverage was originally part of the programme she presents on Nile TV, alongside a further article entitled “A win-win situation” published in Al-Ahram Weekly earlier in March.
The article discussed both countries’ points-of-view towards the dam, taking from interviews with the Speaker of the House of the People’s Representatives of Ethiopia Aba-Dula Gemeda, and President of the Arab Water Council and Honorary President of the World Water Council Mahmoud Abu-Zeid.
Gemeda is Ethiopia’s former minister of national defence and former chief of intelligence. Abu-Zeid played a pivotal role in launching the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) in 1999, and took part in the negotiations related to the Nile River.
The Nile River Awards is from the NBI, in corporation with Deutsche Welle (DW) Akademie, Global Water Partnership Eastern Africa, Nile Basin Discourse and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ).
In her speech, Sweilam blamed the governments for denying journalists the right to freedom of expression and access to accurate and reliable information. She also pointed that media is partly responsible for escalating conflicts in the Nile River.
Journalists gathered at Press Syndicate on 20 May 2015 heading to file a demand to the Prosecutor-General to release journalist Youssef Shaaban, detained on 11 May in Alexandria along with lawyer Mahienour El-Massry. (Photo by Mostafa Mohie)
A group of journalists filed a report on Wednesday to the Prosecutor General’s office demanding the release of detained journalist Youssef Shaaban for violence charges, whilst covering an incident.
Shaaban was arrested while presenting himself at court for an appeal on a case in which he was sentenced to prison and was released on a bail pending trial. The report was signed by head of the Press Syndicate Yehia Qallash, of which Shaaban is a member.
This comes at the same time media reports said Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat interfered to halt a two-year prison sentence for TV presenter Ahmed Moussa on grounds that the verdict was to be appealed.
Moussa was charged with slander in more than one case. Public figures such as politicians, political activists and lawyers have complained about being “defamed” in Moussa’s TV show, and accused of committing crimes without proof.
Nonetheless, Moussa continues to present his programme, accompany the president on his tours. His close relationship with the state is no secret as he openly states it.
For his part, Shaaban is detained in the same case of prominent lawyer Mahienour El-Massry.
El-Massry’s lawyer Mohamed Ramadan negotiated Wednesday his right to visit her in jail. “I visited her indeed but they refused to let me hand her a copy of prison laws and regulations which is her right,” he told Daily News Egypt.
Lawyers, journalists and activists continue to protest the re-imprisonment of 2014 Ludovic Trarieux Prize recipient El-Massry, alongside Shaaban and seven other detained activists in the case. They await a verdict on 31 May for charges of attacking the police.
Alexandria’s Al-Raml Misdemeanour Appeals Court ordered on 11 May the detention of activists Mahienour El-Massry and Youssef Shaaban, until a verdict session on 31 May for charges of demonstrating violence.
The case dates back to March 2013, when two human rights lawyers’ were assaulted by Muslim Brotherhood members who took them to Al-Raml police station where they were detained.
According to a published testimony by Tamer Khattab, an eye-witnesses and colleague of the detained, said that on 29 March 2013, he went to the station to follow up on the case. “Other lawyers came as well for assistance, but as I was inside, police forces did not allow them in under the pretext that we – lawyers – were already inside,” he said.
“Naturally, the lawyers refused this violation of their right. We went down because a quarrel had erupted between the two sides. Police forces assaulted lawyers who were in and those who wanted to come in, which we refused,” he added.
Lawyers decided to sit-in at the station awaiting the prosecution general authorities, or an official apology to the lawyers. Those who were already accused were released from the prosecution which did not charge them with anything.
As the crisis escalated between police forces and the Syndicate of Lawyers, the issue stopped there and the investigation was closed. “The fact that the case has been opened a year later shows that Alexandria security forces want to silence lawyers and activists in the city,” Khattab said.
Following the court order, the International Association of Lawyers (UIA) issued a statement saying: “The UIA reminds Egyptian authorities of their obligation, under customary international law and international principles, and as required explicitly in the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers (particularly Principles 16 and 17), to adequately protect and support lawyers practicing in Egypt.”
The Editor-in-Chief of Al-Bayan newspaper, Ibrahim Aref, is being investigated by the prosecution following his arrest on accusations of publishing false news. (Photo from Al-Bayan Newspaper)
The Editor-in-Chief of Al-Bayan newspaper, Ibrahim Aref, is being investigated by the prosecution following his arrest on accusations of publishing false news.
Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat issued an arrest warrant Monday for Aref for “publishing false news that can endanger general security, terrorise people and harm public interest”, state media reported.
The questioned news covered the assassination of six prosecutors and was published by the paper on Monday morning according to the prosecution. However, the report was not to be found on the newspaper’s website later.
The newspaper’s Dokki office was raided by police and Aref was arrested on Monday.
The Press Syndicate’s commissioner of freedoms, Khaled El-Balshy, confirmed the news to Daily News Egypt Tuesday, saying: “Aref is now in being investigated by prosecution.”
The syndicate issued a statement condemning the prosecution’s move against Aref, saying it violates articles 68 and 69 of the press regulation law setting controls of investigating journalists in publishing cases.
“The syndicate asserts that the quick move by the prosecution in the case violates all legal rules especially that law prevents pre-trial detention in publishing cases as it also conditions informing the syndicate of summoning any journalist for investigation enough time before the summon,” the statement added.
The syndicate called on the prosecution to commit to legal rules as “violating them by the authority which is supposed to enforce law may send negative signals”.
Press Freedom has been challenged recently, earlier in May Al-Watan newspaper’s special edition, printed on the newspaper’s anniversary, was confiscated after print reportedly for using the front-page headline “7 entities more powerful than Al-Sisi”.
In late April, five journalists from Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper were subject to investigations for publishing a report on police violations on protesters, detainees and conscripts, which the interior ministry described as “libelous”.
According to a December report by the Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), at least 44 journalists were arrested in the first half of 2014, not all of them are currently detained.
