Ikshef Report on Egypt’s Violations against Media Freedom on September 2016

71 violations

More detentions

Closures of offices of two newspaper

London – October 10, 2016

September 2016 has witnessed fierce detentions, maybe the largest since last April, whether concerning the number of detainees or those of enforced disappearance, or those who were sentenced to prison. Three journalists were detained during practicing their job in street. Another one suffered enforced disappearance. Another journalist were spotted after suffering enforced disappearance. A prison sentence were issued against another journalist. On the other hand, journalist Hassan Al-Khodari, correspondent of Misr 25 satellite channel was released, and media host Islam Al-Beheiri was ordered to be released, but still in prison.

September has witnessed 71 violations, including arrests, imprisonments, enforced disappearances, violations in prisons most notably torture as happened to Abdullah Shosha journalist of Amjad satellite channel, and Abdullah Al-Fakharani and Samhi Mostafa who suffered bad treatment and medical negligence. This in addition to the suffering of families during visits and denying entry of medicine and food.

Other violations are still there, including trials and complaints, prevention of coverage, physical abuses and restrictive legislation.

Imprisonment and enforced disappearance

Total cases of violations in the area of imprisonment, detention and enforced disappearances are 11 cases during September.  Three journalists were imprisoned at one time. They are Hamdi Al-Zaaem of Al-Hayat newspaper, Mohammed Hassan of Al-Nabaa Al-Watani newspaper and Osama Al-Beshbeshi of Baladi website. This is in addition to the temporary detention of Nora Nasser (aka Nermin Fathi) the journalist in Masralarabia website, and photojournalists Omar Al-Adawi. Additionally, three people were filming scenes of a work of art were temporary detained. Also, the prison sentence against journalist Khaled Abdul-Aziz, Aswan correspondent of Misr 25 satellite channel.

In terms of enforced disappearances, freelance journalist Mohammed Hazz faced enforced disappearance while getting into a car with his family as they were heading to his home province of Assiut. Ahmad Mansi, journalist of Shabab News website, who faced enforced disappearance for more than two months was spotted. His colleague in the same website Mahmoud Abdul-Latif has not been spotted yet.

Meanwhile, Hassan Al-Khodary of Misr 25 was released after serving a prison sentence of 3 years. Also, there was a ruling that was not implemented until the preparation of this report to release researcher and media host Islam Al-Beheiri after serving a year in prison sentence. This brings the number of currently imprisoned journalists to 95 cases.

Abuses inside prisons

There were 4 cases of abuses inside prisons in September. They are the case of Abdullah Al-Fakharani of Rassd news network, who started a hunger strike because of ill-treatment. The second case of Rassd’s Samhi Mostafa who was denied meeting his kids. Thirdly, Abdul-Rahman Shahin, correspondent of Al-Hurriya wa Al-Adala newspaper and AlJazeera satellite channel, who suffered cruciate ligament and other diseases in Suez prison. Fourthly, the continuous torture of Abdullah Shosha of Amjad satellite channel and the rest of the detainees in Port Said by one of the police officers.

Trials and complaints

This section included 30 violations, notably acquittal of Abdul Rahman Yaqout, photojournalist of Karmoz news website in one case, with his continued detention pending the other cases. Magdi Ahmed Hussein, editor of the Al-Shaab Al-Jadid newspaper has his appeal in one case accepted where he was sentenced to imprisonment of two years and a fine of 40 thousand pounds. finally there is an abolition of imprisonment and the continuance of the fine.

This as well as accepting challenge by Mohamed Maamoun Abu Shosha, correspondent of Misr 25 channel, to stop the implementation of the ruling of three years in prison. There were also renewal of imprisonment of journalists Mohammad Batawi and Omar Adel. There were many other lawsuits and complaints, among which multiple complaints by MP Murtada Mansour against a number of newspapers, including Al-Watan. This is beside a complaint by writer Nawal Saadawi accusing media hosts Azmi Mujahid and Said Hassasain of incitement to kill her. Also, there was a complaint that was submitted against media host Bassem Youssef that asks to put his name on the waiting lists. Finall, there were postponement of a number of cases, including the issue of the head of Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate and two members of EJS council.

Physical abuses and temporarily detention

September has witnessed 9 attacks against journalists by police, people, and security of public figures and facilities. Most notably was the case of journalist Mohammed Jebril who was attacked by people during covering the aftermath of a migrants drowning boat in the coastal city of Rosetta. This is beside the attack by the security staff of the minister of education on journalists and preventing them by force from covering a conference by the minister. Moreover, police repeatedly attacked journalists and held a number of them in custody, insulting them, and preventing them from coverage by force in many places.

Prevention of coverage

Preventions of coverage were 10 cases, most notably the decision to prevent photographing in the hearings of the former head of Central Auditing Authority, Hisham Geneina. Security staff in Zamalek club, Burj Al-Arab stadium and Football federation prevented journalists from covering sports events. Many similar incidents took place in universities, courts and other institutions.

Writing and interviews bans and layoffs

Three cases were tracked this month as follows:

– Al-Ahram newspaper deleted some paragraphs of an article by Karem Yahya on the imprisoned journalist Hesham Jaafar and his suffering.

– Head of Channel 2 in Egypt, Nahla Abdul-Aziz, decided on September 15 to prevent the spokesman of Football Federation, Azmi Mogahed, from appearing in a weekly program.

– Head of Radio and television Union, Safaa Hegazi, fired head of news sector, Mostafa Shehata, on September 20 because of airing an old interview of the president with US BPS network. Also, she referred all those who were involved to Central Legal Affairs.

Closure of media outlets

The most notable cases in September was the closures of the Qatari Al-Sharq and Al-Arab newspapers offices in Cairo, and firing 100 journalists because of Egypt’s official stance of Qatar. Also, Nile News TV channel was hacked.

Restrictive Legislations

A body in the administrative court in September 25 has upheld the decision of the minister of interiors to monitor and track social media networks, under a bill entitled “Monitoring security dangers of social media networks”.

Detained journalists

Below is an updated list of detained journalists in Egypt till 31 September 2016 (95 Journalists):

1. Hamdi Al-Zaaem (Al-Hayat)
2. Mohammed Hassan (Al-Nabaa Al-Watani)
3. Osama Al-Beshbeshi (Baladi website)
4. Mohammed Haz (Freelance journalist)
5. Mahmoud Al-Sakka (yanairgate.net)
6. Omar Adel (Zoom News website)
7. Magdi Ahmed Hussein (Editor of Al-Shaab Al-Jadeed)
8. Hani Salah Al-Din (Managing editor of Youm7)
9. Hisham Jaafar (MADA)
10. Ismail Al-Iskandrani (Freelance journalist)
11. Mohammed Al-Sanjnidi (Freelance journalist)
12. Islam Al-Beheiri (Youm7)
13. Ahmed Naji (Akhbar Al-Adab)
14. Ahmed Sebaie (Head of Al-Aqsa TV office in Egypt)
15. Hassan Al-Qabbani (Al-Karama newspaper)
16. Mohammed Saber Al-Batawi (Al-Akhbar)
17. Ibrahim Al-Dadrawi (Al-Qawmiya for distribution)
18. Mohsen Radi (Al-Dawa)
19. Said Abu Haj (Sinai Media Center)
20. Amr Al-Khafif (Former director of broadcast engineering in ERTU)
21. Imad Abu Zaid (Al-Ahram)
22. Mohammed Abossoul (Akhbar Al-Youm)
23. Abdo Desuqi (Ikhwanweb)
24. Mohammed Ibrahim Shukri (Al-Omma TV channel)
25. Walid Shalabi (Ikhwan Online)
26. Yusuf Talat (Al-Sabab TV channel)
27. Mahmoud Mostafa Saad (Alnahar newspaper)
28. Ammar Abdul Majid (Al-Hadath website)
29. Sabri Anwar (Elbadil newspaper)
30. Ahmed Bayoumi (Dardasha newspaper)
31. Samhi Mostafa (Rassd network)
32. Mohamed Salah (Journalist, Al-Shaab Al-Jadeed)
33. Ibrahim Suleiman (5^th TV channel – National TV)
34. Omar Abdul-Maksoud (Masralarabia.com)
35. Mahmoud Abu Zeid, (aka Shawkan) (Demotix photo agency)
36. Bakri Abdul-Aal (Al-Raya newspaper)
37. Mohammed Al-Saeed Al-Dashti (Al-Mashhad newspaper)
38. Abdul-Rahman Shahin (Freedom and justice newspaper – Aljazeera TV channel)
39. Mohammed Madani (Misr 25 TV channel)
40. Musaad Al-Barbari (Director Ahrar 25 TV channel)
41. Khaled Hamdi (Misr 25 TV channel)
42. Khaled Abdul-Aziz (Misr 25 TV channel)
43. Jamal Al-Alem (Misr 25 TV channel)
44. Mosaab Hamed (Misr 25 TV channel)
45. Osama Ezzuddin (Misr 25 TV channel)
46. Mohammad Al-Adli (Amjad TV channel)
47. Abdullah Al-Fakharani (Rassd network)
48. Moataz Mostafa Shahin (Freedom and Justice newspaper)
49. Mohamed Salah Sowaidan (Freelance photographer)
50. Mahmoud Abdul-Nabi Awad (Rassd network)
51. Ibrahim Abdul-Nabi Awad (Rassd network)
52. Khalid Abdul-Rauf Sahlob (Rassd network)
53. Khaled Hamza (Managing editor of IkhwanWeb)
54. Sayed Musa (Amjad TV channel)
55. Karim Mostafa Al-Sayed (Al-Shabab TV channel)
56. Mohammed Ezzat (Ikhwan Online)
57. Abdullah Shousha (Amjad TV channel)
58. Ahmed Lashin (Misr 25 TV channel)
59. Ahmed Fouad Mohamed Al-Sayed (Karmoz website)
60. Shadi Abdul-Hamid (Freelance correspondent)
61. Suhaib Saad Al-Haddad (Freelance correspondent, Aljazeera)
62. Khalid Mohammed Abdul-Rahman (Freelance correspondent, Aljazeera)
63. Wael Al-Heddini (Freelance correspondent)
64. Mohammed Mamoun Abu Shousha (Ahrar 25 TV channel)
65. Ibrahim Talha (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
66. Mahmoud Jamal Ali Othman (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
67. Mohyi Qasem Mohammed Abdul-Jawwad (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
68. Mohammed Mostafa Abdul-Nasser Abdul-Qadir (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
69. Ahmed Muharram Abdul-Salam (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
70. Abdul-Rahman Abdul-Salam Yaqout (Freelance reporter)
71. Sameh Mohammed Ahmed Bakri (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
72. Abdullah Jamal Moftah (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
73. Ammar Samir Abdul-Ghani Ahmad (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
74. Ahmed Khamis Mahmoud Kheder (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
75. Belal Abdullah Ahmad (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
76. Abdul-Rahman Hassan Abdul-Hafiz (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
77. Ahmed Khamis Anwar Abdul-Qawi (Stringer for satellite TV channels
78. Osama Hashem Mohammed Hashem (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
79. Mohamed Hossamuddin Abdul-Halim Al-Kafrawi (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
80. Omar Mohamed Mabrouk Al-Sawi (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
81. Ahmed Ali Ahmed Al-Najjar (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
82. Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed Shehata (Stringer for satellite TV channels)
83. Islam Gomaa (Misr 25 TV channel)
84. Ahmed Hamouda Al-Sakhawi (Misr newspaper)
85. Ahmed Al-Mansi (Shabab News website)
86. Mahmoud Abdul-Latif (Shabab News website)
87. Ibrahim Samir (Freelance correspondent)
88. Islam Al-Banna (Freelance correspondent)
89. Islam Atef (Al-Omma website)
90. Ahmed Abu Khabeer (Al-Omma website)
91. Ahmed Maher Ali (Freelance correspondent)
92. Assem Abdul-Fattah (Al-Omma website)
93. Omar Khedr (Rassd network)
94. Omar Mabrouk (Freelance journalist)
95. Mahmoud Yahia (Al-Omma TV channel)