Egypt
2018
Hundreds of journalists jailed globally becomes the new normal
For the third year in a row, 251 or more journalists are jailed around the world, suggesting the authoritarian approach to critical news coverage is more than a temporary spike. China, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia imprisoned more journalists than last year, and Turkey remained the world’s worst jailer. A CPJ special report by Elana Beiser
Saudi control of Arab media, lamented by Khashoggi, shapes coverage of his death
It is a cruel irony that Jamal Khashoggi’s last unpublished column for The Washington Post was a call for press freedom in the Arab world. His homeland, Saudi Arabia, has spent the last three decades and hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure that never happens.
Live Stream – Press Behind Bars: Undermining Justice and Democracy
Event scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. EDT on Friday, September 28, 2018. Committee to Protect Journalists Executive Director Joel Simon, Reuters President and CPJ board member Stephen J. Adler, and human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, who represents the imprisoned Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, speak on a panel at the 73rd…
Egypt sentences photojournalist Shawkan to five years
Washington, D.C., September 8, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned an Egyptian court’s sentencing of photojournalist Mahmoud Abou Zeid, also known as “Shawkan,” to five years in prison, and called on authorities to release him immediately and remove any restriction on his release on appeal.
Egypt extends detention period for four journalists held as part of mass trial
New York, August 21, 2018– Egyptian national security prosecutors ordered four more journalists to be detained as part of a case in which more than a dozen journalists, along with academics and activists, are charged with belonging to a banned group and with spreading false news. The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on authorities…
Egypt extends detention of five journalists
Washington, D.C., July 26, 2018– Egyptian national security prosecutors in the past two weeks prolonged the detention of at least five journalists, according to Egypt’s Journalists’ Syndicate, the local press freedom group Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), and news reports. Authorities accuse the journalists, who had been arrested separately beginning in March, of…
CPJ calls on Egyptian authorities to release journalists held on false news charges
Washington, D.C., July 10, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Egyptian authorities to drop the charges against a group of journalists held in pretrial detention for false news and release the journalists immediately.
Egyptian authorities detain blogger Wael Abbas
New York, May 23, 2018–Egyptian authorities should release immediately Wael Abbas, a blogger who has documented Egyptian police abuse, and end their senseless campaign against the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police at dawn today detained Abbas at his Cairo home and took him to an undisclosed location, according to news reports,…
Military court in Egypt sentences journalist to 10 years in jail
New York, May 22, 2018–The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemned the sentencing today of Egyptian freelancer Ismail Alexandrani. A military court in Cairo found Alexandrani guilty of being a member of a banned organization and spreading false news, and sentenced the journalist to 10 years in prison, according to news reports.
Justice Delayed
Mahmoud Abou Zeid (Shawkan) CPJ welcomes the release of Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abou Zeid, also known as Shawkan, on March 4, 2019, after over five and a half years of arbitrary detention on anti-state charges. Despite walking out of jail, Shawkan is still not entirely free. For five years, the photojournalist will have to appear…