As elections near, Egypt finds a new target: foreign news media

pulse

March 1, 2018 4:18 AM

Egypt’s chief prosecutor delivered a withering broadside against the news media Wednesday, blaming the “forces of evil” for negative coverage and instructing his staff to take legal action against outlets deemed to be undermining Egypt’s security.

The remarks by the prosecutor, Nabil Sadek, were the latest escalation of a draconian crackdown on civil liberties before a presidential election that has become fraught with tension even though President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi faces no real opposition.

In comments that appeared aimed at the foreign news media, Sadek accused outlets of spreading false news “to disturb the public order and terrorize society.” A day earlier, Egypt had called for a boycott of the BBC over a documentary that aired last week detailing torture and illegal abductions by Egyptian security forces.

The State Information Service, which oversees the foreign media, said the BBC film was inaccurate because a young woman featured in the documentary later told a local television station that she had not been harmed.

Her mother said Tuesday that the woman had been coerced into giving a false statement to the local station. A day later, the mother was reported to have been arrested.

While el-Sissi has long treated Egyptian news outlets harshly, jailing dozens of reporters and blocking websites, he has generally spared foreign reporters the worst measures. That appears to have changed with the presidential election campaign.

A long list of rules announced by the national election commission in February seeks to dictate the questions journalists can ask voters, prohibits them from using photographs or headlines “not related to the topic” and forbids them from making “any observations about the voting process.”

Although the presidential vote, scheduled for March 26-28, is widely seen as a charade — el-Sissi’s sole opponent is an obscure politician who until recently backed him — the government has given no quarter to potential rivals.

Four serious candidates who might have challenged el-Sissi were sidelined, jailed or threatened with prosecution, and on Feb. 14 the authorities arrested Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, an opposition leader who contested the 2012 election but is not running this time.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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