Mada Masr journalist summoned for interrogation as Nation’s Future resorts to legal threats to refute corruption report

Mada Masr has learned that one of its journalists has been summoned for interrogation on Monday before the Luxor prosecution. It is the first move targeting the institution and its team after the Nation’s Future Party threatened to file complaints against us. The journalist has been unable to learn the details of the complaint filed against them.  

The Nation’s Future Party announced its intention to file complaints against Mada Masr, three of its journalists, its news editor and its chief executive after the website published news of accusations of corruption against a number of party leaders. These accusations have been investigated by official oversight bodies and led to a decision to expel a number of party officials from the political scene. 

Mada Masr’s defense team noted that the summons from the Luxor prosecution indicates that the local party secretariat or one of its members is likely to have submitted the complaint. Accordingly, this may signal that other complaints have been submitted in other cities by respective party secretariats. According to the defense team, “this is an old tactic” to increase pressure and oblige the subjects of the complaints to appear before different prosecutors. 

Thus, Mada Masr’s defense team intends to take legal measures to ask the public prosecutor to hear the organization’s leadership and journalists’ testimonials in the above-mentioned complaint and any other complaint on the same issue. The defense team will also file a memo with the Journalists Syndicate to explain the situation and request legal representation during the interrogations. 

For its part, Mada Masr regards the summons for interrogation as an expected development consistent with the significant pressure that journalists working in Egypt have been subject to in recent years. We affirm our confidence in the integrity of our legal position and our commitment to the highest professional publishing standards. We also express our regret that the majority political party in Egypt, known to be proximate to power, is using such tactics to intimidate a press outlet that is operating on behalf of public interest. Rather than inform the public as to what is really happening, the party has resorted to these tactics to avoid frank discussion about the accusations facing the party and its leaders, the details of which have been under discussion by party members and those close to the party for several weeks. 

Mada Masr affirms its commitment to continuing its professional coverage of this case involving the Nation’s Future Party, as well as all other matters of public interest.