The last trial against a journalist dates back to June 28. Egyptian justice “sentenced journalist Alia Awad to 15 years in prison, following a mass trial that began in 2015, for filming protesters accused of terrorism”said Reporters Without Borders (RSF). “Egypt is one of the biggest prisons in the world for journalists. The hopes of freedom raised during the 2011 revolution now seem far away,” describe I‘NGO calling for the immediate release of the journalist, imprisoned since 2017.
#Egypt : justice sentenced journalist Alia Awad to 15 years in prison after a mass trial started in 2015, for having filmed protesters accused of terrorism. RSF calls for his immediate release.https://t.co/ljF1dgSqZl pic.twitter.com/YD4V0KPmRJ
— RSF (@RSF_inter) June 29, 2022
In a new report titled “The puppets of President Al-Sissi”RSF reports a “unsustainable work environment” for journalists who are exposed to “hate, smear and defamation campaigns”, explains in a press release its manager for the Middle East, Sabrina Bennoui. Presenters of pro-government TV channels and state newspapers in Egypt are “campaigning against journalism”.
“These attacks are state-sponsored with the complicity of star presenters and mass media.”
Sabrina Bennoui, RSF manager for the Middle Eastin a press release
While the 2014 Constitution guarantees press freedom in Egypt, the country has around 20 reporters behind bars and ranks 168 out of 180 in RSF’s 2022 press freedom ranking.
According to the NGO, the Egyptian security services represent “the second player in the media landscape” thanks to a holding that brings together “about 17%” of the media in the country of 103 million inhabitants. Still according to RSF, this media infrastructure is mobilized to carry out “coordinate” campaigns allowing “star presenters to slander journalists on popular television channels (…) under the control of state intelligence services”. Egypt is regularly singled out for its human rights record, with more than 60,000 prisoners of conscience, including several imprisoned for “dissemination of false information”according to international NGOs.
According to RSF, star journalists played an important role in the repression, putting aside their “deontology” to become of “staunch defenders of the government”. If the dissident journalists are not accused of being supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, a brotherhood banned in Egypt since Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi overthrew Mohamed Morsi in 2013, they are accused of “foreign agents” or promote the “debauchery”an accusation with serious consequences in this conservative country. “In addition to the violations usually measured and documented by RSF, many Egyptian reporters express their dismay at these media campaigns directed against them. These publications create an unbearable climate and force them to keep a low profile because they fear being imprisoned at any time. moment”, explain Sabrina Bennoui.