Egyptian authorities have detained six journalists from the independent platform Matsadaash, accusing them of ties to the terrorist organization “Muslim Brotherhood“. This is the entire staff of the media outlet, which is among the few independent outlets in the country.
The Interior Ministry has described Matsadaash as an unlicensed outlet run from abroad by a “fugitive member of the “Muslim Brotherhood““. According to the authorities, the six journalists were part of a media committee of the banned organization that prepared fake and manipulated news.
The detainees were Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emayra, Abdallah Qadri, Omar Helal, Islam Barakat, Mohamed Mahmoud and Mohamed Adel. The first arrest was made on Monday evening, when police went to Qadri's home. The remaining five were detained on Tuesday.
Journalists taken from their homes and the street
Abu Emayra was taken from his home at dawn. His library and internet router were damaged during the arrest. Helal was detained in Port Said, Barakat in Gharbia province, and Mahmoud and Adel in Cairo. All the journalists' phones and computers were confiscated.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights reports that the whereabouts of the six remain unknown and that they have not been allowed to contact their families or lawyers. The rights group describes the case as the first in Egypt in which an entire editorial team has been detained.
“Everyone on this team was aware of the risks when they went to work every day, but it is unacceptable for the government to make false accusations and resort to kidnapping journalists just because it fears a free press,“ said Matsadaash co-founder Abdelrahman Mansour, who is based outside Egypt. He denies the charges and says neither he nor the detainees' families know where the journalists are.
Over 80 organizations demand their release
More than 80 international and regional human rights organizations, civil society groups and independent media outlets have called on Egyptian authorities to release the journalists. A joint petition, also signed by Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders, says Matsadaash has been publishing on important public issues for years and that the pressure on her is an escalation of the crackdown on independent media.
Matsadaash was founded in 2018 as a fact-checking platform, and later expanded its activities to include investigative journalism. Its website is blocked in Egypt, but its Facebook page has more than a million followers.
In 2023, two editors of the platform were detained but released without charge after investigators from the state security service found no links to the “Muslim Brotherhood“. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights reports that 26 journalists are currently detained in the country.
Egypt declared the “Muslim Brotherhood“ a terrorist organization in 2013, after the removal of President Mohamed Morsi, who was one of its leaders. Since then, Egyptian authorities have regularly accused journalists and critics of the government of links to the organization or of spreading fake news.
Sources: Ukrainska Pravda