Egypt arrests journalist for taking pictures

Egyptian video journalist Mahmoud Nasr has been arrested in Egypt after taking photographs of someone spraying graffiti.

Social media activists reported that the photographer had been released from questioning and charged with wasting public funds. He is now waiting for the prosecutor’s decision on his case.

Since the coup in Egypt authorities have cracked down on all members of the opposition, including journalists.

Six years after the Egyptian Revolution, Egypt currently ranks at 161 out of 180 on the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index. Ten reporters have been killed without a proper investigation into their deaths; many are detained without charge or due process or are tried in mass trials.

Legislation has been put in place which undermines freedom of the press including a terrorism law introduced in 2015 which stipulates journalists can only report the “official version” of terrorist attacks on national security grounds.

A three-month state of emergency put in place after the Palm Sunday bombings was widely interpreted as a means to further crackdown on the press after senior state officials called for greater restrictions on Egypt’s media.

The third article of the emergency law gives the president power to “monitor newspapers, publications, editorials, drawings, and all means of expression, by written or oral decree.”