Publications
Partners
Cairo - The head of Egypt's journalists union and two of its board members have been questioned by prosecutors over allegations that they spread false news and harboured journalists wanted by authorities, one of the three and their lawyer said on Monday.
They were ordered released on $1 000 bail each, but they refused to pay and were consequently detained at a police station in central Cairo, said board member Khaled el-Balshy and defence lawyer Sayed Abu Zeid.
"We refused to pay because the accusations are related to publishing news and that should not involve imprisonment or bail," said el-Balshy.
Inciting protests
The move against the three came less than a month after the head of the union, Yahya Qalash, called for the interior minister's resignation and a presidential apology over an alleged police raid to snatch two journalists wanted for allegedly inciting protests and who had taken refuge inside the union building in downtown Cairo.
Authorities deny the allegation that they forcibly entered the building, saying police had an arrest warrant and co-ordinated in advance with union board members. Qalash, the union's head, later sought to ease the tense standoff with the government, dropping his demand for a presidential apology and not repeating his demand for the minister to step down.
The incident led to an uproar among journalists and rights activists who saw the alleged police raid as evidence of the low esteem in which the media is held by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's government.
El-Sissi has significantly curbed the freedoms won following the country's 2011 popular uprising, defending a 2013 law that effectively bans street protests and repeatedly stating that Egypt's human rights record must not be judged by Western standards.
Pro-government media routinely defames critics and brands any opposition as either treason or motived by clandestine support for the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group from which Mohammed Morsi, the Islamist president el-Sissi ousted in 2013, hails.
El-Sissi on Monday again showed a desire to have a government influence on the media and entertainment industry.
Negative picture
He spoke at an inauguration ceremony for a new housing project in Cairo for low-income Egyptians. The project is a substitute model for the shanty towns that ring the Egyptian capital and are often depicted in movies as violent, crime infested and morally degenerate areas.
He used the opportunity to angrily demand an end to such cinematic depictions, lending his considerable weight to media criticism of such movies as tarnishing the image of Egypt.
"The claim through movies that their residents are different is inappropriate, paints a negative picture and divides society," he said. "Those people are well bred and have morals and values ... We should not allow them (the movies) and they should not be produced."
It was not clear how the president's directive would be implemented since film-making is in the hands of private production companies. Egypt has a state censor who must approve the script of any new movie before it is shot, although cases where the censor rejected a script are rare.
