Egypt: Fact-checking site’s entire newsroom jailed as assault on press freedom widens

Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt.

Six journalists who make up the entire newsroom of the Egyptian fact-checking website Matsadash remain in detention, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) said on Tuesday, warning of proliferating assaults on press freedom by the Government.

“ We are witnessing widening assaults on press freedom by Egyptian authorities, including the targeting, persecution and harassment of independent journalists ,” the human rights chief’s spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told journalists in Geneva.

“ These alarming developments must end immediately , and journalists must be able to carry out their essential work free from intimidation and reprisals.”

The detained reporters are Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emeira, Abdallah Qadry, Islam Barakat, Omar Helal, Mohamed Mahmoud and Mohamed Adel. According to their lawyers, they were tortured and otherwise ill-treated and forced to record fabricated confessions.

Lina Attalah, chief editor of the independent online news outlet Mada Masr, also faces continuing judicial harassment linked to her journalistic work, the OHCHR spokesperson said.

Last month, an Egyptian court convicted her of operating an unlicensed website. She was detained, then released after paying a fine, and the court ordered the website closed.

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