Egypt imposes gag order on corruption reports

Egyptian Public Prosecutor Nabil Sadiq yesterday imposed a gag order on reporting news about a Central Auditing Authority (CAA) report which exposed corruption in the country, the Anadolu Agency reported.

In a statement, the Office of the Public Prosecutor excluded reporting statements issued by the Public Prosecutor regarding the issue.

Egyptian media said the gag order was imposed after a presidential investigative committee found the AAC’s head Hesham Genena guilty of misrepresenting facts about state corruption.

Genena’s legal advisor Ali Taha said the decision might stop the “unjustified attacks” on Genena’s role in exposing corruption, but he insisted that this “must be a temporary decision and the public must know the complete facts about corruption.”

On Sunday, the Egyptian parliament decided to form a special parliamentary committee to discuss Genena’s remarks about corruption in the country.

This is the second committee that discusses Genena’s remarks in three months. The first was the presidential committee which claimed that Genena was guilty of misrepresenting facts about state corruption. It was launched in December last year.