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Egypt arrests journalist for 'inciting violence'

April 19, 2022 at 1:32 pm

Journalists take part in a protest outside the Syndicate of Journalists in Cairo, Egypt [AFP/Getty]

Egypt yesterday arrested a correspondent working at the independent news website Masrawy, Ahmed Al-Bahy, accusing him of “inciting violence”.

A member of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, Mahmoud Kamel, told the media that the prosecutor ordered the pretrial detention of Al-Bahy for four days pending investigation.

Kamel added that Al-Bahy’s arrest stemmed from his “coverage of a recent incident in Menoufia’s Sadat town, where police officers asked him to stop filming the murder of a young man.”

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“Al-Bahy’s family was surprised by his arrest from his home at six in the morning,” Kamel pointed out, adding that he was transferred to the Sadat police department.

There are a total of 70 journalists behind bars in Egypt, according to the Arab Media Freedom Monitor.

Egypt ranks 166 in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index issued by the independent organisation Reporters Without Borders.

In recent years, hundreds of newspapers and websites have been shut in Egypt, and activists have been prosecuted on social media, and imprisoned on charges of “spreading false news.”