Thursday, June 25, 2020
Press Release
FDHRD Issued its Report “Journalists Without Protection” for the First Half of 2020
The Freedom of Opinion and Expression Program at the Forum of Development and Human Rights Dialogue (FDHRD) today released its report “Journalists Without Protection” and monitors the arrests of journalists during the first half of 2020.
The report monitored the arrest of about 24 journalists during the reporting period. The accusations varied between criminal charges according to the Egyptian Penal Code and charges directly related to issues of publication and freedom of opinion and expression.
The report stated that about 19 journalists were accused in criminal cases, where the Public Prosecution charged them with joining a group founded in violation of the provisions of the law, promoting its ideas, spreading false news and misusing social media sites, and 2 journalists accused in cases of freedom of opinion and expression, while there were 3 journalists have not been investigated yet.
The report also monitored the presence of about 15 journalists in pretrial detention and 9 journalists who have been released.
Saeed Abdel Hafez, FDHRD Dead, called for working on issuing an information circulation law that would allow the appropriate availability of information from its official sources so that journalists could practice their work.