The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 19 other civil society organizations on Monday, August 8, in an open letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, urging the Biden administration not to provide its full proposed military aid to Egypt due to the country’s treatment of journalists and other human rights abuses.
The letter urged the Biden administration not to provide $300 million out of the proposed $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt, noting that the additional $300 million is conditioned on Egypt meeting a set of conditions related to human rights and the rule of law. The groups argue that President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi’s recent purported human rights efforts are an attempt to “whitewash” his government’s crackdown on free expression and human rights.
Egypt was the third worst jailer of journalists in the world, with at least 25 journalists behind bars, at the time of CPJ’s 2021 prison census.
The letter can be read here.