Last week, Egyptian security forces arrested six journalists from Matsadaash, an independent fact-checking and investigative platform. The journalists — Abdallah Qadri, Mohamed Ashraf, Mohamed Adel, Islam Barakat, Mohamed Mahmoud and Omar Helal — were detained over two days. The authorities accused them in a statement of being unlicensed and publishing false news on behalf of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
On Sunday, Mohamed Ashraf was charged with joining a terrorist group and spreading false news, according to a statement by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), a non-governmental organisation. The rights group said Ashraf was interrogated for 10 hours, from 10pm to 8am, with the questioning focusing exclusively on material published by Matsadaash. Ashraf is to be held for 15 days pending investigation. The whereabouts of the other five journalists remain unknown.
Abdelrahman Mansour, co-founder of Matsadaash, denied any association with the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational movement designated a terrorist organisation by Egypt in 2013 after the ousting of former president Mohamed Morsi. Mansour called the arrests "one of the gravest attacks on journalism in Egypt's modern history".
"My colleagues were doing what journalists should do: asking difficult questions, uncovering facts, and reporting on issues that affect people's lives," Mansour said. "They deserve recognition for their work. Instead, their homes were raided, and all six were taken away. The government must answer this question: why have you arrested six journalists? What have they done beyond doing their jobs?"