- EGYPT
- September 1, 2017
- 9 minutes read
Military Coup Regime Puts 45 Journalists, Media Professionals on Terrorist Lists
Egypt’s military coup regime has included 45 journalists and media outlets on terrorism lists since the July 3, 2013 coup. The Arab Media Freedom Monitor (AMFM) has tracked and identified a number of journalists and media professionals in the latest list of "terrorist entities" published in the Official Gazette on Wednesday.
This "terrorist" list includes journalist Badr Mohamed Badr, former editor-in-chief of Aafaq Arabiya newspaper; Qutb Al-Araby, AMFM president and former Assistant secretary-general of the Supreme Press Council; media journalist Osama Gawish; Diaa Tarek and Suhaib Abdel-Maksoud.
The decision of the Criminal Court also revealed that the charge against these media professionals is "publishing news regarded by the Egyptian authorities as incorrect, to harm the country’s national security; and propagating rumors against the Egyptian government at home and abroad".
AMFM said in a statement Thursday that the inclusion of these journalists and media workers in the terror list is a part of "a systematic government effort to muzzle mouths and hound independent journalists opposed to the regime, which culminated in the blocking of hundreds of news websites and the continued detention of about 100 journalists.
On January 17 (2017), 28 journalists and media workers were included in a list of terrorist entities which included 1,536 citizens. It included the following journalists and media professionals:
– Ibrahim Khalil Al-Darawi, Abu-Bakr Hamdi Kamal Mashaly, Ahmed Hassan Al-Sharqawi, Ayat Mohamed Saeed Orabi, Ahmed Mansour, Adham Abdel-Fattah Hassanein Ragab, Osama Hossam Mohamed El-Shafei, Islam Lutfi Ali, Usama Rushdie Ali, Ahmed Zein, Gamal Abdel-Samie Yosef, Gamal Fathi Nassar, Hamdi Shafiq Al-Mazin, Hamza Saad Zobaa, Khalid Abdel-Raouf Sahloub, Khalid Abdel-Latif Al-Sharif, Samehi Mustafa Ahmed Abdel-Alim, Samir Zaki Khalil Al-Arki, Salah Abdel-Maksoud, Adel Mohamed Hashem Al-Ansari, Aliaa Nasr-Eddin Awad, Qutb Abdel-Rahman Gad Al-Arabi, Mohsen Yosef Al-Sayed Radhi, Hisham Gaafar, Hisham Fouad Abdel-Rasool, Haitham Abu-Khalil, and Walid Abdel-Raouf Shalabi.
On May 27 (2017), the Egyptian Official Gazette published a decision of the 16th Circuit Court of Cairo to include a number of Egyptian citizens on a new list of terrorist entities. The decision included 15 journalists and media professionals in this terror list, accused of publishing false news about the situation in Egypt, although the court acquitted some of the journalists on the list of similar charges.
Journalists and media professionals included on the new list:
Walid Abdel-Raouf Shalabi (Freedom and Justice Party)
Gamal Fathi Nasar (Al-Mukhtar Al-Arabi)
Ahmed Subaie (Aafaq Arabiya)
Khaled Hamza (Ikhwanweb)
Magdy Abdel-Latif (Akhbar Alyaum)
Youssef Talaat (Al-Shabab TV channel)
Hani Salahuddin (Alyaum Alsabei)
Ibrahim Al-Tahir (Akhbar Alyaum)
Mossaad Al-Barbary (Misr25 TV channel)
Abdo Mostafa Desouki (Ikhwanweb)
Ahmed Mahmoud Abdel-Hafez (TV producer)
Mohamed Sanhawi (freelance)
Samehi Mostafa (Rassd news network)
Mohamed Mostafa El-Adly (AmgadTV channel)
Abdullah Al-Fakharani (Rassd).
Qutb Al-Arabi, AMFM president, said the inclusion some journalists and media workers on lists of terrorism is part of a "fierce and systematic campaign aimed at hounding and silencing voices of journalists, media professionals, and independent media workers.
"One of the aims of this repressive campaign is to instill fear in the hearts of other journalists and media professionals, threatening them with the same fate if they express their views freely and professionally."
In a statement on Arabi 21 TV channel, Qutb al-Arabi said: "Those terrorist lists are not limited to citizens classified by security authorities as members of the Muslim Brotherhood or belonging to any Islamic movement or group, but also include many names known not to belong to the Muslim Brotherhood… What really brings these together on those lists is their opposition to the regime, albeit peaceful, and their defense of freedom of opinion and expression.
"Such decisions were not made on any legal basis, but for the settling of political accounts and to punish journalists and media professionals for doing their duty and practicing their professional work reporting news.
"The inclusion of these journalists and media professionals in the list of terrorist entities entails the denial of their right to travel outside the country, the withdrawal of their passports and the seizure of their property."
