London, April 4, 2018
Arab Media Freedom Monitor “Ikshef” expresses its deep concern over the escalation of the Egyptian authorities’ vicious attack against journalists and the continued pursuit of independent voices in Egypt on the first day after the announcement of the presidential election results in clear contradiction to the declared statements of tolerating different viewpoints.
Ikshef condemns the storming of headquarters of Masr Al-Arabia website by the security officials and closing it for baseless claims, detaining editor-in-chief Adel Sabri and taking him to a security headquarters. This comes hours after the decision of the Supreme Council for media organization to fine of 50,000 Egyptian pounds against the website in violation of the law on the background of its independent coverage of the elections and revealing of some of the defaults that challenge their credibility and soundness of their climate.
It is worth mentioning that the Supreme Media Council decided to fine Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper 150,000 pounds (8522 dollars), and to refer its editor-in-chief and one of its editors to the state security prosecution and to be investigated before the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate for the same reasons.
Ikshef also condemns the continuation of the supreme state security prosecution renewing the imprisonment of journalists for their professional work, as it has renewed detention of journalists Ahmed Abu Zeid, Ahmed Abdul-Aziz and Hossam Al-Suweifi for 15 days under case no. 977 for the year 2017, and journalists Moataz Wadnan, Mostafa Al-Aasar and Hassan Al-Banna for 15 days in case no. 441 for the year 2018.
Ikshef demands the release of all journalists and the stopping of security crackdown on media institutions and the criminalization of the press.
