The verdicts against the Al Jazeera journalists come amid a clear tightening of the reins on the Egyptian media and before parliamentary elections in October. Just two weeks earlier, President Sisi pushed through a new counterterror law, granting sweeping powers to the judiciary and security forces to tackle the country’s emboldened militants.
The legislation, which hands jail sentences ranging from five years to the death penalty for terrorism crimes, shields the police and military from the legal ramifications of using force when applying it.
It also criminalises all forms of “incitement to terrorist acts” — even if conducted privately and without effect. And it hands journalists fines of up to £42,000 if they publish reports on terror-related topics that stray from the government line. No news outlet can afford the impossibly high financial penalties, meaning that they can only publish what the government wants.
Meanwhile, the State Information Service has launched a service called “Fact Check Egypt” to monitor coverage and stop “propaganda”. The government-funded team was trained by the news website iMediaEthics — edited by Rhonda Shearer, a US citizen. Ms Shearer, who lives in Cairo, wrote a piece in a local paper two weeks ago criticising foreign media coverage of a July terror attack. She said “the mothers of Egypt deserve a correction and apology” from journalists who published casualty figures that contradicted the military’s official number.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, an NGO, estimates that up to 20 journalists are held in Egypt, although the government said that no reporter had been jailed for doing their job. Some, such as Mahmoud Abou Zeid, a freelance photojournalist, have been in pre-trial detention for more than two years even though they have not been charged.