Over two months ago, the Egyptian journalist Ahmed Siraj, working for Zat Masr, conducted an interview with Nada Moghith, the wife of Ashraf Omar, an Egyptian cartoonist detained since July 2024. Omar faces charges of joining a terrorist group with full knowledge of its objectives, spreading false news, and misusing social media. However, Siraj did not anticipate that this interview would eventually land him in the same prison as Omar after his own arrest on similar charges.
In the published interview, Nada spoke about her husband’s detention conditions and the violations committed during his arrest. She reported that security forces seized some of her personal belongings, including her jewelry and makeup products, as well as a sum of money—of which she was only able to prove the loss of a quarter. She also called for an investigation into the procedures surrounding her husband’s arrest.
A month after the interview was published, Nada and Siraj were both shocked to learn that arrest warrants had been issued against them. They were summoned for questioning by the State Security Prosecution in mid-January 2025 and were interrogated for five hours. Nada was later released on bail of 5,000 Egyptian pounds, but Siraj was ordered to be detained for 15 days pending investigation in case No. 7 of 2025. The charges against him included spreading false news, joining a terrorist group, using an electronic platform to promote terrorist ideologies, and committing a crime related to terrorist financing.
Just two days before Nada and Siraj’s arrest, Egypt’s Ministry of Interior released a statement denying the claims made in a viral video circulating on social media. The video featured a woman alleging that her husband had been arrested and that security forces had seized money and other belongings from their home without documenting them in the official arrest report—a clear reference to the interview Nada had given about her husband’s arrest.
Siraj’s case is not unique in Egypt’s journalistic landscape. Many Egyptian journalists have been imprisoned for their reporting on politically sensitive topics. The length of their detentions varies, from a few days to several years.
According to the Egyptian Observatory for Journalism and Media, which monitors arrests and violations against journalists, Egypt has recorded: 112 cases of arbitrary arrests of journalists between 2019 and 2024. 57 cases of unlawful detention and arrests in the same period. The peak year was 2019, with 31 cases of arbitrary arrests and 14 cases of unlawful detentions.
The year 2019 saw widespread anti-government protests, initiated by exiled opposition figure Mohamed Ali from Spain. Following his calls for demonstrations, Egypt launched a massive crackdown, particularly in Cairo and Suez, where some protests had taken place.
Disappearance and Exile
Among the journalists who have been punished for their reporting is Basma Mostafa, an Egyptian journalist who was arrested in October 2020 in the city of Luxor while on assignment to cover the killing of a citizen by the police in the village of Al-Awamiyah.
According to Al-Manassa, the media outlet she worked for at the time, a police officer stopped Basma and asked to see her ID before allowing her to continue her journey. However, he continued to follow her until she disappeared, and all contact with her was lost. The next day, she reappeared before the prosecution, facing charges of joining a terrorist organization, spreading false news, and using a website for publishing purposes—the same charges later brought against Ahmed Siraj. The prosecution ordered her detention for 15 days, but the public prosecutor decided to release her after two days. Fearing further persecution, Basma was forced to leave Egypt, living between Lebanon and an African country before eventually settling in Germany.
Basma’s case bears similarities to that of her colleague Moataz Wadnan, who was also forced into exile. However, their experiences in prison differed in duration—Basma was released quickly, whereas Wadnan spent more than three years behind bars.
Wadnan’s arrest came after he conducted an interview in February 2018 with former head of the Central Auditing Organization, Judge Hisham Geneina, for HuffPost Arabic. In the interview, Geneina stated that former Egyptian army chief of staff, General Sami Anan, possessed documents containing evidence against many Egyptian leaders, though he did not disclose details.
As a result, Wadnan was arrested and imprisoned under case No. 1898 of 2019 (State Security Prosecution) on charges of spreading false news, misusing social media, and cooperating with a terrorist organization. He was later referred to military court and remained detained until July 2021, spending more than three years in prison before his release.
Press Freedom Index
The head of the Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate, Khaled El-Balshy, stated that “the syndicate’s position is clear: conducting an interview is not a crime. However, over the past year, many journalists have faced false charges, including joining a banned group, spreading false news, and misusing social media. In Siraj’s case, additional charges were added, such as committing a financing-related crime and using a website for publication. Journalists spend years in pretrial detention on these charges before being either released, referred to court, or having their cases frozen.”
A significant number of cases against journalists include charges of joining a banned group, spreading false news, and misusing social media. Now, charges related to financing have also been introduced. Journalists are left in pretrial detention for years before being released or having their cases frozen, highlighting the urgent need to review this situation.
“Siraj’s case reveals the necessity of reconsidering these charges, as well as reassessing the use of the Anti-Terrorism Law. The government claims that the exceptional terrorism phase has ended, so there should be a return to normal legal procedures. Under standard law, if there is a complaint about an interview conducted by a journalist, legal action should begin with a report to the public prosecutor, who then summons the journalist for investigation within the framework of the law, rather than referring them to a State Security Court,” El-Balshy said.
El-Balshy added, “The biggest paradox in Siraj’s case is that he was arrested for conducting an interview with someone who was later released, while the journalist was imprisoned on charges of using a website to promote terrorist ideas. This is a site that operates legally in Egypt, has applied for a license, and is not owned by Siraj—he was merely working for it. Arresting journalists for doing their job will ultimately strip journalism of its ability to represent the people.”
In May 2024, Reporters Without Borders released its annual World Press Freedom Index, ranking Egypt 170th—just ten places away from the lowest-ranked country. It was preceded by Palestine, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya, all of which are conflict zones in the Arab region. In August 2024, eight human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, condemned what they described as an assault on freedom of expression in Egypt, citing the prosecution of four journalists, including Ashraf Omar, in the weeks leading up to their statement.
Former candidate for the Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate Council, Iman Aouf, described “the arrest of journalist Ahmed Siraj as a dangerous indicator of how journalists are treated in Egypt.” She noted that “he was not involved in writing about any political opinions; he simply conducted a journalistic interview. He was professionally obligated to publish what was said in that interview, which is the nature of journalism. This differs from cases where journalists are arrested for opposing the regime.”
Aouf emphasized that “this is not the first case of its kind in Egypt. Many others have faced similar fates, most notably journalist Moataz Wadnan, who was arrested solely for performing his journalistic duties.”
She stressed the need to “redefine the relationship between the press and the state. If journalism is killed off by persecuting journalists who are merely doing their jobs, the country will be in danger. Journalism is the platform where citizens express their views and their only outlet for complaints.” She proposed “a broad dialogue between press representatives, particularly the Journalists’ Syndicate and the Supreme Council for Media, along with the authorities, to establish clear guidelines for dealing with journalists.”
Human Rights and Journalism
While Siraj is being prosecuted for his journalism, Hossam Bahgat is facing legal repercussions for both his journalism and human rights activism, enduring a long history of harassment that began in 2011 with the infamous Foreign Funding Case No. 173. He was banned from traveling, and his assets were frozen in 2016 as part of the same case, which also targeted numerous human rights organizations, including the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.
In 2015, Bahgat was unlawfully detained for three days by military police after publishing an investigative report on the independent news site Mada Masr about an alleged coup attempt against the Egyptian government.
In November 2021, he was fined 10,000 Egyptian pounds for allegedly “insulting the election commission” and “spreading false news” via a post on his X (formerly Twitter) account, in which he criticized the former head of Egypt’s National Election Authority.
Despite the formal conclusion of the Foreign Funding Case, and the official announcement by Judge Ahmed Qatlan that investigations into civil society groups launched in 2011 had been closed due to insufficient evidence, Bahgat remains unable to access his assets. Others facing the same restrictions include Azza Suleiman, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Egyptian Women’s Issues Foundation, and Mostafa Hassan, Director of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center. Although they were removed from the travel ban list, their financial assets remain frozen following a Cairo Criminal Court ruling denying their appeal.
In mid-January 2025, Bahgat was summoned for interrogation on charges of “participating in and financing a terrorist organization” and “spreading false news,” after the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights released a statement about a hunger strike at the 10th of Ramadan 6 Prison, where detainees were protesting poor treatment. The statement called on Public Prosecutor Mohamed Shawky to personally visit the prison, inspect conditions, and hear detainees’ complaints. Bahgat was later released on bail of 20,000 Egyptian pounds.
The United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is scheduled to examine Egypt’s human rights record on January 28, 2025. The Egyptian delegation faces a challenging task in justifying the punishment of journalists for simply doing their jobs.