Nation’s Future Party accuses Mada Masr of publishing false news, intends to take legal action

The Nation’s Future Party intends to pursue legal action against some of Mada Masr’s editorial and reporting staff, according to a statement released by the party and a number of sources, after a news item published in the Wednesday edition of Mada Masr’s daily news bulletin regarding plans for a number of senior officials in the party to be removed from their posts due to their implication in instances of corruption. 

Mada Masr obtained a copy of a complaint, which is being circulated among several of the party’s representatives in the lower parliamentary house for them to sign and submit to the public prosecutor. The complaint levels charges of “insult, slander and defamation,” against Mada Masr’s chief executive, the editor of the news item published on Wednesday, and three of the website’s journalists. Mada Masr was unable to confirm at the time of writing whether the charges had been filed with the Public Prosecution. 

According to sources within the party who spoke to Mada Masr, the complaint was to be accompanied by a legal memorandum claiming that the website’s editor-in-chief and three of its journalists violated articles of the law regulating the press. 

Mada Masr affirms the integrity of its reporting and its commitment to professional journalistic standards. It considers the publication of news in relation to the party which holds a majority in Parliament and possesses close ties to the government to be in the public interest. Mada Masr regrets that the party — which asserts its respect for the journalistic profession which it described as becoming “one of the most difficult tasks” — did not send a statement of denial for Mada Masr to publish nor publish its own denial, as is customary, and instead resorted to issuing a statement that entails the threat of security measures against journalists doing their work in some of the hardest conditions possible.

Such threats entail a continuation of long-held practices of repression to which Egypt’s journalists are exposed, from security harassment to long periods of imprisonment: practices which have meant that Egypt ranks as one of the worst countries in press freedom indexes.

The news Mada Masr published yesterday cited four sources from the party’s governing body and central secretariat, and stated that a sovereign entity is currently undertaking a “purge” from among the ranks of the senior leadership in the party, which holds a majority in both parliamentary houses. The news said that the purge is being conducted in partnership with state oversight agencies after members of the party’s leadership were implicated in incidents of corruption and abuse of power.

The party denied the news “in its entirety,” describing the target of publication as “shaking the security and stability of the country,” without referring to specific details of the coverage.

Mada Masr has twice been exposed to security harassment. In relation to coverage published in November 2019, authorities arrested four journalists and editors after raiding Mada Masr’s offices and holding staff there for several hours. All were ultimately released. In May 2020, Mada Masr Editor-in-Chief Lina Attalah was arrested, with the public prosecutor issuing an order for her release on the same day.