Non-government sanctioned media and critical news reports are frequently described as ‘false news’ in Egypt.

Al Jazeera has called on all human rights organisations and those concerned with press freedom to back campaigns to release journalists locked up behind bars in Egypt.

Among the reporters detained in Egypt is Al Jazeera Mubasher Channel producer, Bahaa Eldin Ibrahim, who was arrested at Alexandria’s Borg El Arab Airport three years ago.

“Ibrahim has been subjected to ongoing illegal violations since his arrest three years ago, including enforced disappearance, torture, and solitary confinement, while being blindfolded and handcuffed. He is also suffering from severe back pain due to a chronic crooked spine,” a press release said on Wednesday.

“Al Jazeera Media Network expresses grave concern for Ibrahim’s safety and the safety of his colleagues Hisham Abdelaziz and Rabie el-Sheikh, who are being held in cells that lack basic health conditions,” the statement added, warning their chronic diseases pose an extreme threat to their safety and endangers their lives.

The journalists, Rabie El Sheikh, Bahaa Ed Din Ibrahim and Hesham Abdel Aziz have been detained preventively since August 2021, February 2020 and June 2019 respectively on charges of “membership of a banned group” and “spreading false information.”

In august, Egypt authorities renewed the detention of Al Jazeera journalist Rabie El-Sheikh for 45 days, a decision slammed by the Qatar-based network as an attack on press freedom.

“Al Jazeera views the detention of the journalist as an attack on press freedom and holds Egyptian authorities accountable for the safety and security of El-Sheikh and all other journalists detained and imprisoned for merely carrying out their duties as journalists,” the media network said in August.

The news organisation also condemned Cairo for its continuous imprisonment of El-Sheikh without charge despite his health continuing to deteriorate.

The fate of the four Al Jazeera journalists was highlighted by top media rights organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which issued a statement to Egyptian authorities in June 2022.

The report, published just days after Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani visited Cairo for the first time since the 2017 blockade, said the Al Jazeera journalists “have been paying for the political rivalry between the two countries for too long and have no place being in prison.”

Egypt and press repression

The Qatar-based Al Jazeera network was banned after President Abdelfattah El Sisi forcefully seized power from Egypt’s first democratically-elected President Mohammed Morsi in a military coup in 2013.

Sisi also outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood and launched a major and brutal crackdown on its members and supporters after capturing control.

Al Jazeera, which closed its offices after Egyptian security forces broke up demonstrations in Rabia and Al Nahda squares on 14 August 2013, began broadcasting again in August 2021 following an eight year hiatus.

Egypt was among four countries, namely Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, that imposed an illegal air, land and sea blockade on Qatar in 2017 over allegations that Doha had supported terrorism and was ‘too close‘ to Iran and Turkey.

Rights groups have accused Sisi’s government for jailing tens of thousands of dissidents and outlawing virtually all forms of political opposition, describing it as part of a brutal campaign to silence critical journalists.

Egypt was the world’s third-worst jailer of journalists on CPJ’s 2021 prison census, which found that the number of reporters jailed for their work hit a new global record of 293, up from a revised total of 280 in 2020.

Ahmed Taha, an Al Jazeera Media Network presenter was sentenced to 15 years in prison in absentia by an Egyptian court for “spreading false news” during an interview with Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a leading opposition figure and former presidential candidate in 2018.

Taha slammed the court ruling as “lacking logic” and “shameful” for those who issued it, and that this decision does not reflect on him or his colleagues.

“This sentence is not against me; it’s against the Al Jazeera Network, against press freedom and journalists in Egypt,” Taha said in an interview with Al Jazeera in late May.

His sentencing came months after Egypt’s National Strategy on Human Rights, a plan to address human rights violations in the country, was released.

Taha expressed his amusement regarding the ruling against him, saying: “How would you stand in front of the world and say: ‘I sentenced a TV presenter to 15 years because he hosted a public figure. How are they going to justify this?’”

Despite this, Cairo has denied holding political prisoners.

According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Egypt is one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists, with many spending years in jail and solitary confinement without being formally charged or tried.

RSF says that more than 500 websites have been blocked since the summer of 2017, including news outlets. According to data from RSF, Egypt ranked 166th out of 180 countries in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

Non-government sanctioned media and critical news reports are frequently described as ‘false news’ in Egypt.