Press-freedom advocates seek release of Egypt’s entire Matsadaash newsroom
The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Egypt to release six Matsadaash journalists, disclose their whereabouts and give them access to lawyers and relatives. US congressional advocates also demanded their immediate, unconditional release. The platform’s founder rejected the Interior Ministry’s accusations of disinformation and links to the Muslim Brotherhood. CPJ’s 2 October appeal follows arrests that it says took the entire investigative newsroom into custody.
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Release appeal seeks access to families and lawyers
The Committee to Protect Journalists, an organisation defending press freedom, called on Egypt on 2 October to release six journalists from Matsadaash, an independent investigative media platform. The committee asked authorities to disclose their locations and allow prompt access to relatives and lawyers. US Representatives Don Beyer and Suzan DelBene, co-chairs of the Egypt Human Rights Caucus in Congress, also demanded their immediate and unconditional release.[1], [2]
Six detentions encompass the investigative newsroom
According to the committee, Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emeira and Abdallah Qadry were detained in home raids on Monday evening and early Tuesday. By the end of Tuesday, Islam Barakat had been taken from his home in Gharbiya, an Egyptian governorate, and Omar Helal from his home in Port Said, an Egyptian city. Mohamed Mahmoud and Mohamed Adel were detained on Cairo streets. The six arrests encompassed the platform’s entire newsroom.[1]
Founder Abdelrahman Mansour said the journalists had been held for more than 72 hours, with their whereabouts unknown and without contact with families or lawyers from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a rights organisation. Sara Qudah, the committee’s regional director, described the arrests and apparent disappearance as a grave escalation in the suppression of independent journalism. CPJ also sought removal of charges stemming solely from legitimate journalistic work.[1]
Founder rejects the Interior Ministry’s accusations
Egypt’s Interior Ministry accused Matsadaash on Thursday of destabilising the country through disinformation. It called the platform an unlicensed, foreign-run page and linked it and Mansour to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist movement. Mansour rejected those allegations and denied any affiliation with the group. He said a former colleague, Karim Asad, had been detained over similar accusations after a major investigation in 2023 and released within 36 hours.[1]
CPJ said 25 journalists were imprisoned in Egypt and that its request for comment from the Public Prosecutor’s Office received no immediate reply. Beyer and DelBene called for Congress to continue conditioning US military assistance to Egypt on demonstrable human-rights reforms. They described the detention of the entire newsroom as an escalation in the government’s campaign against press freedom. The lawmakers said Egyptian authorities regularly accuse government critics of Muslim Brotherhood membership without sufficient evidence or due process.[1], [2]
