New York, April 18, 2022 – Egyptian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalist Ahmed al-Bahy and drop any charges filed against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. On Saturday, April 16, state security forces arrested al-Bahy, a correspondent for local independent news website Masrawy in the Monufia Governorate in Egypt’s Nile Delta…
New York, December 20, 2021 – In response to a Cairo court’s sentencing today of journalists Alaa Abdelfattah and Mohamed Oxygen to multi-year prison terms, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement of condemnation: “Egypt’s sentencing of journalists Alaa Abdelfattah and Mohamed Oxygen to years in prison is unacceptable, and demonstrates the lengths…
The Middle East and North Africa region has long been especially dangerous for journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists’ research has found that one out of every three reporters killed worldwide in retaliation for their work since 1992 — 477 out of 1,422, or 33.5% – were located in the region. That proportion rose to…
Editor’s note: Numbers for each prison census are adjusted yearly as CPJ learns of arrests, releases, or deaths in prison. The numbers for CPJ’s 2021 census have been revised from 293 to 302 in accordance with this policy. For the most recent data, see cpj.org/data/imprisoned/ The number of journalists jailed around the world set another record…
When Al-Jazeera journalists Mohamed Said Fahmy, Hisham Abdelaziz, and Bahaa Eldin Ibrahim Neamatalla were arrested on terrorism charges in Egypt between 2018 and 2020, their families decided to keep quiet about their detention. They feared that public attention would backfire, leading Egyptian authorities to prolong their relatives’ time in custody or worsen their prison conditions. …
New York, November 17, 2021 – In response to a Cairo court’s sentencing of journalists Hisham Fouad and Hossam Moanis to four years in prison today, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement of condemnation: “Today’s sentencing of Egyptian journalists Hisham Fouad and Hossam Moanis to four years each in prison is unacceptable,…
In a joint statement today, the Committee to Protect Journalists joined 18 other civil society groups in condemning the reported decision by U.S. President Joseph Biden’s administration to send military aid to Egypt and bypass human rights conditions set by Congress. The statement noted that the administration’s move to send $170 million in military aid,…
On November 2, Egyptian investigative journalist Hossam Bahgat is set to go on trial over a tweet. In the December 2020 post on Twitter–where he has more than 260,000 followers–Bahgat, who is also the executive director and founder of local rights group the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, criticized the former president of the National…
Washington, D.C., July 29, 2021—Egyptian authorities should drop all charges against press freedom advocate Gamal Eid and allow him to work and travel freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On July 27, an Egyptian investigative judge questioned Eid, founder of the regional press freedom group Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), for…
New York, July 19, 2021 – Egyptian authorities must immediately release journalist Abdel Nasser Salama and drop all charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Yesterday, state security officers in Alexandria arrested Salama, a columnist at the state-run newspaper Al-Ahram and its former editor-in-chief, from his home, according to news reports. Prosecutors…