- EGYPT
- May 28, 2017
- 5 minutes read
Rights Organization: 15 Journalists, Media Professionals Unjustly Added to Egypt New Terror List
The Egyptian official gazette published Saturday a decision by the Cairo Criminal Court to include a number of Egyptian citizens on a new list of terrorist entities. 15 journalists and media professionals are on the list, on charges of publishing false news about the situation in Egypt, although the court acquitted some of those journalists of the same charges laid against them, and therefore thus their inclusion in any terrorist list is totally unwarranted.
The Arab Media Freedom Monitor (AMFM) expresses full condemnation of this decision, which does not stand on any legal basis; but on vindictiveness and an intense wish to settle political scores, and to punish journalists and media workers for doing their professional duty.
This new court decision came as part of a systematic crackdown on press freedom in Egypt, which began since the July 3 (2013) coup, with the latest act of oppression blocking 21 news websites. The inclusion of journalists in the list of terrorist entities entails denial of their right to travel outside the country, revocation of their passports and the seizure of their property.
The new terror list includes the following journalists and media workers:
– Walid Abdel-Raouf Shalabi (Freedom and Justice Party)
– Gamal Fathi Nassar (Al-Mukhtar Al-Islami)
– Ahmed Sobei (Aafaq Arabiya)
– Khaled Hamzeh (Ikhwanweb)
– Magdi Abdel-Latif (Akhbar Alyaum)
– Youssef Talaat (Al Shabab channel)
– Hani Salah Al-Din (Alyaum Alsabei)
– Ibrahim Eltaher (Akhbar Alyaum)
– Mossaad Al-Barbary (Masr25)
– Abdo Mostafa Desouki (Ikhwanweb)
– Ahmed Mahmoud Abdel-Hafez (TV Producer)
– Mohamed Sanhawi (free-lancer)
– Samhi Mustafa (Rassd)
– Mohamed Mustafa Al-Adly (Amgad channel)
– Abdullah Al-Fakharani (Rassd).
The decision of the Criminal Court was based on the indictment in the case known as "Rabaa operations room"
in which the Court’s final judgment May 8 acquitted some journalists and media workers now included in the new list: Ahmad Sobei, Hani Salahuddin, Walid Shalabi and Abdo Mustafa.
According to the court’s decision, the media professionals added on the terror list "deliberately broadcast abroad false news, statements and rumors about the internal situation in the country, by broadcasting through the internet and certain satellite channels videos, pictures and false news to suggest to the public that the regime was incapable of effective management of the country, which would negatively impact the prestige of the state and its status"
Arab Media Freedom Monitor
Saturday – May 27, 2017