Egyptian journalists plan protest over detention of six colleagues
Journalists in Egypt will hold a protest in Cairo this weekend after six staff of the independent fact-checking platform Matsadaash were charged in a terrorism case. The detainees say they were tortured in police custody, which the authorities deny.
Egyptian journalists are planning a new protest in the capital, Cairo, this weekend. They are reacting to the detention of six colleagues, who face terrorism-related charges and say they were tortured in police custody. The case points to growing tension between the authorities and independent media in Egypt.
Last week, the authorities arrested six journalists from Matsadaash, an independent fact-checking and investigative platform: Abdallah Qadri, Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emeira, Mohamed Adel, Islam Barakat, Mohamed Mahmoud and Omar Helal. Plainclothes officers detained them at their homes and in the street. In a statement, the authorities accused them of working without a licence and producing false news for the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. One was charged on Sunday and the other five late on Wednesday.
Torture allegations
All six told their lawyers they had been tortured and forced to film false confessions, which police deny. Lobna Darwish of the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate, whose lawyers represent the six, said the journalists told prosecutors they were blindfolded and handcuffed for days, beaten and forcibly stripped. Some received electric shocks, and they also described threats to harm family members. She said they were made to read confessions from sheets of paper over repeated takes in front of what she called professional filming crews.
In a statement on Wednesday, the public prosecution said three journalists who alleged ill-treatment had undergone forensic examinations that found no injuries or signs of violence. The interior ministry called the allegations baseless and an attempt by the detainees to evade the accusations, and described the six as Muslim Brotherhood elements working for the group.
A further case
Journalist Rasha Azab was questioned by the supreme state security prosecution over a social media post criticising the interior ministry about the arrests. She was released on bail but faces a charge of using a website to promote ideas advocating terrorist crimes. Her lawyer, Mahienour El-Masry, said prosecutors confronted Azab with 11 identical complaints lodged in different governorates over the post.
Hadeer El-Mahdawy, a journalist on the protest's organising committee, said colleagues were horrified by the news of torture and urged the use of every available tool to defend the profession and its members. Journalists see the arrests as part of a wider escalation against independent media, amid poor pay and insecure employment in the profession.
