Egypt: Journalist Charged with Terrorism After Entire Newsroom Arrested
Theo The Guardian
An Egyptian journalist has been charged with belonging to a terrorist organization after the entire staff of the independent Matsadaash outlet was detained. Five colleagues remain unaccounted for, and more than 80 rights groups are demanding all six be freed.
An Egyptian journalist has been charged with joining a terrorist organization, days after the entire staff of an independent media platform was arrested in what human rights groups describe as a crackdown on press freedom.
Last week, authorities detained six journalists from Matsadaash — an independent fact-checking and investigative outlet whose name literally means "don't believe" — on charges of operating without a licence and spreading fake news on behalf of the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
The six journalists — Abdallah Qadri, Mohamed Ashraf, Mohamed Adel, Islam Barakat, Mohamed Mahmoud and Omar Helal — were taken into custody by security forces over two days.
On Sunday, Egyptian authorities charged Ashraf with joining a terrorist organization and disseminating fake news, according to a statement from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), a non-governmental organization. The charges followed an interrogation that ran from 10pm to 8am and focused entirely on material published by Matsadaash, the rights group said.
Ashraf will be held for 15 days pending investigation, while the whereabouts of the remaining five journalists remain unknown.
Abdelrahman Mansour, a co-founder of the platform, denied any links to the Muslim Brotherhood — a transnational movement that Egypt designated a terrorist organization in 2013 after former President Mohamed Morsi, a senior Brotherhood figure, was ousted in a coup. Mansour called the arrests "one of the most serious attacks on the press in Egypt's modern history".
"My colleagues were doing what journalists should do: asking difficult questions, uncovering facts and reporting on issues that affect people's lives. They deserve recognition for their work. Instead, their homes were searched and all six were taken away," he said. "The government must answer this question: why have six journalists been arrested? What did they do other than carry out their jobs?"
The Guardian contacted Egypt's State Information Service for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.
On Saturday, dozens of journalists staged a sit-in outside the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate (EJS) in Cairo, demanding the release of the Matsadaash staff. Members said they would maintain the protest indefinitely until the journalists are freed, and the EJS said it would convene an emergency meeting on Monday.
The EJS has sent requests to the interior ministry and prosecutors to release the journalists and to provide information about where they are being held.
More than 80 human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists, have condemned the arrests as a violation of freedoms and demanded the immediate release of the Matsadaash staff.
The arrests came just over a week after the US government waived human rights conditions on $320m (£242m) in military aid to Egypt, citing Cairo's "useful role" in US national security after the US-Iran war.
The US provides about $1.3bn in aid to Egypt each year, but part of it is contingent on the Egyptian government meeting certain human rights and democracy requirements. The US has repeatedly withheld portions of the aid since the 2013 coup because of Egypt's poor human rights record, but has largely maintained the flow of money.
This year, Washington waived the human rights requirement entirely, saying it was "essential to US-Egypt relations and US national security priorities", according to a State Department memo revealed by Reuters.
Mansour said he was unsure whether the arrests were linked to the recent waiver, but argued: "The US's use of the national security exemption on human rights conditions for years, along with the willingness of other countries to turn a blind eye to Egypt's human rights record … certainly makes violations like this easier to carry out."
Cairo has faced years of criticism over human rights abuses, with the monitoring group Freedom House saying Egyptian security forces "engage in human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings with impunity".
Since Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi came to power in the coup that ousted Morsi, civil liberties have been curtailed and domestic political opposition has been harshly suppressed.
Egypt ranks 169th out of 180 countries on Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Index. Press freedom is tightly restricted in the country and independent platforms such as Matsadaash are rare. About 26 journalists are being held in Egyptian prisons, according to the EJS.
