Journalist arrested while reporting on Mahalla protest

A photojournalist allegedly affiliated with the Qatar-based satellite network Al Jazeera has been detained in Mahalla for reporting on a protest there, the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported on Thursday.

The photographer, identified by MENA as Ibrahim M, was working with two other journalists to cover a protest by Mahalla workers condemning terrorism, MENA said. Secret informants working for the police reportedly confiscated Ibrahim’s notebook, and allegedly found statements written against police and military forces.

He was then arrested and referred to the prosecution, while the other two reporters fled the scene, according to MENA.

Ibrahim faces charges of belonging to a terrorist organization and distributing false news.

Al Jazeera’s broadcast in Egypt was suspended by court order last year, and its offices were shut down due to the channel’s failure to procure the correct registration documents. However, critics accuse state forces of targeting Al Jazeera in the context of a larger spat between Egypt and Qatar, due to the latter country’s support for the banned Muslim Brotherhood group.

Three men working for the Al Jazeera English network in Egypt received prison sentences ranging from seven to 10 years earlier this year on charges of joining and aiding a terrorist organization, and broadcasting false news about Egypt with the intent of harming the country’s image abroad.

The defendants included the channel's Cairo bureau chief, Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, Australian correspondent Peter Greste and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed. Other defendants in the case were also sentenced to 10 years in prison in absentia.

The case drew broad local and international condemnation, and has been interpreted as a symbol of the crackdown on press freedoms following the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi.

In 2013, Egypt was the world’s ninth worst offender for jailing journalists in a list topped by Turkey, Iran and China, according to a study released by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) last December.

“Following the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi on July 3, 2013, the military-supported government detained dozens of local and international journalists, particularly those viewed as critical of the government or sympathetic to Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. Most were freed,” the study said.