Media Monitor: 32 Violations and 100 Detained Journalists in Egypt in August

The Arab Media Freedom Monitor has issued last Thursday evening its monthly report about violations against freedom of journalism and media in Egypt last August, showcasing the most notable violations committed against journalism and media in Egypt. The report considered that there had been an escalation of power in the face of journalism and media during this month, which the Egyptian authorities have been continuously denying and viewing as an attempt to underestimate Egypt, as they put it.

Government escalation

The Monitor said in the introduction to its report, which Al-Mugtama Magazine obtained a copy of,

“During August, there has been an escalation in the Egyptian authorities’ campaign against journalism and media, through many measures against the Constitution, the law and human rights, preceded by the ratification of three laws known in Egyptian media as “journalism and media execution” laws.”

According to what is documented by the Monitor in August, the violations rose to 32 after being 22 violations in July. Offences have been classified according to their numbers: 11 court violations, followed by seven labour restrictions, six prison violations, four corrupted laws and legislation, then three detention and imprisonment violations and finally one in-work violation.

The Monitor added, Egyptian authorities have removed a number of prominent media personalities, such as TV presenters, including Tamer Abdel Moneim and Tamer Amin, in conjunction with the dismissal of 6 broadcasters by Quran Kareem radio station without clear reasons.

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100 detainees and medical negligence

According to the Monitor, three journalists were arrested at once during the previous month (one of them was forcibly disappeared). This was not followed by the release of any one of them during the month, contrarily to what the regime used to do when releasing detainees following new arrests. This has increased the number of journalists facing forced disappearance, arbitrary detention, and corrupt trials to 100.

The Arab Media Freedom Monitor confirmed the escalation of medical negligence in Egyptian prisons. During the previous month, there were two notable cases of Islam Gomaa and journalist Moataz Wadnan.  in addition there were  continued violations at the courts, where the judiciary continued to help the perpetrators involved in the massacres of RabaaEl-Adaweya and Al-Nahda.

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Harassment incident

According to the Monitor, in August the most infamous verbal and physical harassment of the journalist at Youm7, May El Shamy, by the authority-backed Editor-In-Chief, Dandrawy Elhawary, has occurred. The Monitor pointed out that the journalist filed a complaint to the police and the prosecution heard her statements.

The Monitor added in its report: “Nonetheless, according to many versions, Journalist May El Shamy has been subjected to pressures to cancel her complaints. In contrast, Journalist Dandrawy Elhawary wrote on Youm7 that what is happening is a systematic campaign by the opposition members against him, especially from the Muslim Brotherhood. However, he did not provide explanations about the complaint against him in light of the moves of members of Egypt’s Journalists Syndicate Council, Amr Badr and Mohamed Saad Abdelhafid, in solidarity with the female journalist and accompanied her during the filing of complaints and the communication.