Egypt / Middle East & North Africa

New York, October 13, 2020 – Egyptian authorities must immediately release Kamal el-Balshy and stop harassing the families of journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On September 20, state security forces arrested Kamal el-Balshy, who works at an international travel agency, while he was returning home from the gym in downtown Cairo, according…

New York, October 5, 2020 – On October 3, state security forces arrested freelance journalist Basma Mostafa upon her arrival at a bus stop in the southern city of Luxor, where she had traveled to cover the alleged killing of a man, Ewais al-Rawy, during a police raid for the al-Manassa newspaper, according to her lawyer and husband Karim…

New York, September 14, 2020 – Egyptian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalist Islam al-Kalhy and stop arresting members of the press covering protests, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On September 9, Egyptian security forces arrested al-Kalhy, a reporter for the local independent news website Darb, while he was covering protests in…

New York, September 4, 2020 – Egyptian authorities should immediately and unconditionally release journalists Hany Greisha and El-Sayed Shehta and stop arresting journalists during a global pandemic, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On August 26, security forces arrested Greisha, an editor at the privately owned news website Youm7, at his home in Giza,…

New York, September 2, 2020 – Since August 24, the Egyptian state prosecutor’s office has filed additional charges against imprisoned journalists Mohamed Salah, Solafa Magdy, and Esraa Abdelfattah, for actions they allegedly committed while in pretrial detention, according to local news reports. On August 24, the prosecutor’s office charged Salah with membership in a terrorist…

On August 11, 2020, Egyptian authorities arrested freelance journalist Rasha Mounir in Cairo while she was covering the Egyptian senate elections, according to news reports. The reports did not specify which outlet Mounir was working for at the time. She was unconditionally released without charges the same day, according to a Facebook post by Amr Badr, a journalist and…

“I am very sick! I need oxygen therapy. Someone help me! Someone please help me get admitted to the Moneera hospital! I am very sick! Please do something before I completely run out of breath!” The Egyptian journalist Mohamed Monir panted, short of breath, as he made a plea from his home over Facebook Live on July 7….

Washington, D.C., July 13, 2020 — In response to the death of Egyptian journalist Mohamed Monir after contracting COVID-19 in pretrial detention, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement: “We are extremely disturbed by journalist Mohamed Monir’s death today after he spent more than two weeks unnecessarily held in pretrial detention at Cairo’s…

As of June 29, 2020, at least four Egyptian journalists who covered the COVID-19 pandemic remain in prison following their arrests in March and April, according to news reports and local journalists and lawyers who spoke to CPJ. On March 15, state security officers arrested Atef Hassaballah el-Sayed, editor-in-chief of local newspaper al-Qarar al-Dawly, at…

New York, June 22, 2020—In response to news reports that unidentified women assaulted the family of imprisoned journalist Alaa Abdelfattah outside Tora prison in Cairo today, as prison authorities watched, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement: “Egyptian authorities must hold accountable those who beat, robbed, and forcibly removed Alaa Abdelfattah’s family from…