The UN human rights office called on Egypt on Tuesday to end what it described as widening assaults on press freedom and to release the entire newsroom of the fact checking website Matsadash. Six journalists remain in detention: 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, allegations the UN office said must be promptly investigated.
“We are witnessing widening assaults on press freedom by Egyptian authorities, including the targeting, persecution and harassment of independent journalists,” spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told journalists in Geneva. The office called for the charges arising from the reporters’ journalistic work to be dropped and, until release, for confidential access to lawyers, family contact and healthcare.
The statement also covered Lina Attalah, chief editor of the independent outlet Mada Masr. A court convicted her last month of operating an unlicensed website; she was detained, released after paying a fine, and the court ordered the website closed, a development this site reported on October 28. She faces another hearing this week in a separate case dating back to 2024. Reuters reported she returns to court on Wednesday for a retrial in a case in which she was previously sentenced in absentia to a year in prison for publishing false news and running an unlicensed website, and that the Committee to Protect Journalists counts 25 journalists currently behind bars in Egypt.
Egypt’s Supreme Judicial Council has rejected claims that Attalah’s trial last month was unfair, Reuters reported. Mada Masr says it has sought a licence since a 2018 media law introduced the requirement. The UN office called for the measures suppressing both outlets to be overturned.