CPJ: Egypt 3rd worst jailer of journalists in the world in 2020 in record tally

Egypt ranks as the third worst jailer of journalists in the world in 2020, behind China and Turkey, according to the latest census report by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

In its annual survey published Tuesday, the New York-based watchdog found that a record number of journalists were imprisoned globally because of their work in 2020, with at least 274 documented cases, the most since the CPJ began collecting data in the early 1990s.

“A record number of journalists were imprisoned because of their work in 2020, as governments clamped down on news coverage of civil unrest and the coronavirus pandemic,” the CPJ said.

The CPJ documented 27 journalists in prison in Egypt as of December 1, 2020, matching a record for the group’s tally for the country set in 2016.

“This year, the crackdown in Egypt appeared to proceed sometimes because of, and sometimes in spite of, the pandemic; and in one case authorities’ actions were fatal,” the CPJ says in its report. The fatal case CPJ refers to is that of Mohamed Mounir, a veteran journalist who died of complications from COVID-19 in July, 11 days after being released from prison. Mounir had fallen ill in Tora Prison while being held in remand detention on charges of spreading false news, joining a terrorist group, and misuse of social media, after his appearance in a television program on Al Jazeera in which he discussed the ongoing controversy around the construction of churches in Egypt.

In its report, the CPJ highlights cases of journalists in Egypt imprisoned in remand detention who have had their detentions extended through “tadweer” (“rotation”), an increasingly common tactic used by authorities to keep detainees locked up without trial past the maximum two-year limit for remand detention by charging them in new cases. The CPJ documented at least eight journalists who have been rotated into new cases in Egypt since April 2019. The report specifically points to blogger Mohamed “Oxygen” Ibrahim,  who was arrested in April 2018 and detained for over a year. He was released in July 2019 but arrested again in September 2019 on new charges. He was ordered released in November 2020, but his detention was extended after prosecutors added a further charge. 

Among the nearly 30 journalists imprisoned in Egypt are Solafa Magdy and her husband Hossam al-Sayyad, both freelance reporters who were arrested in November 2019 and are being held in remand on charges including spreading false news and belonging to a terrorist group.

Magdy and Sayyad’s arrests came amid a mass crackdown between September and November 2019, during which several journalists were taken into custody, including Esraa Abd El Fattah, a journalist with Al-Tahrir newspaper who was arrested from her car by national security agents in October 2019. In an appearance before the State Security Prosecution a few days later, Abd El Fattah said that upon her arrest she was beaten and tortured to force her to unlock her phone. She remains in remand detention on charges of joining a terrorist organization, spreading false news and misusing social media.

Also swept up in the 2019 crackdown was Khaled Dawoud, a journalist, former Dostour Party leader and senior member of the Civil Democratic Movement who has been held in remand detention ever since. The CPJ also lists Hossam Moanis, a journalist and senior member of the Karama Party who was arrested in June 2019 along with several political figures involved in discussions to form a new political alliance dubbed “The Coalition of Hope” that was considering running in the 2020 parliamentary elections.

Additionally, the CPJ cites the case of photographer Mahmoud Abu Zeid, popularly known as Shawkan. Abu Zeid was released from prison in March 2019 after spending over five years behind bars, but has had to spend 12 hours in a police station every night since as part of an additional five-year probation, leading the CPJ to maintain his listing as imprisoned.

In its report, the CPJ points to the increasing number of journalists jailed on “false news” charges around the world, particularly in Egypt. “Lack of global leadership on democratic values — particularly from the United States, where President Donald Trump has inexhaustibly denigrated the press and cozied up to dictators such as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi — has perpetuated the crisis,” the CPJ says. “As authoritarians leveraged Trump’s ‘fake news’ rhetoric to justify their actions — particularly in Egypt — the number of journalists jailed on ‘false news’ charges steadily increased.”

The CPJ also highlights two countries with significant increases in jailed journalists in 2020: Ethiopia, where unrest has degenerated into armed conflict; and Belarus, where journalists were detained while covering protests against President Alexander Lukashenko, who claimed victory in an election widely seen as fraudulent.