Reham Saeed sentenced to 18 months in prison for airing photos of assault victim

A Giza misdemeanors court sentenced TV host Reham Saeed to a year in prison and an LE15,000 fine for violating an assault victim's privacy after Saeed aired personal photos of the woman without permission on her show. The talk show anchor was also sentenced to an additional six months imprisonment and an LE10,000 fine for libel and slander.

Last October, Saeed interviewed Somaya Tarek, who was assaulted by a man in a Cairo mall, on her show "Sabaya al-Kheir" (Charity Girls) on the privately owned Al-Nahar channel, hinting that it was Tarek’s “revealing” dress that may have triggered the man to harass her. Following the interview, Saeed aired personal photos of Tarek on the beach in a bikini, and others with her holding a bottle of whiskey or appearing to be scantily clad.

"Just as there are harassers in the streets, some women have really gone off-limits. You won’t like this, but this is the truth. Keep your girls in check and they won’t be [harassed],” Saeed said.

Saeed claimed the director of the show received several pictures of Tarek on WhatsApp, and said she was disappointed by what she saw.

The assault was captured by security cameras at the mall, which showed a man following Tarek before engaging her in an altercation that ended with him slapping her twice across the face.

Saeed’s interview prompted a wave of outrage on social media, with users criticizing Saeed using the hashtag #موتي_يا_ريهام (Die Reham). Saeed's show was then suspended by Al-Nahar in the wake of a boycott campaign following the episode, with the channel vowing to conduct investigations into the incident. After the suspension of the show, #ريهام_ماتت (Reham Died) began trending on social media.

Fifteen companies had announced they would end their advertising contracts with "Sabaya al-Kheir" following a strong online boycott campaign calling on all corporations to stop sponsoring the show. 

The following month, Al-Nahar announced the program would return to the airwaves with Reham as its host, but would focus on charity cases and would not be sponsored by ads.