New
anti-terrorism law takes Egypt
into Orwellian territory
Published
on Monday 17 August 2015.
Reporters
Without Borders condemns a ban on media reports that conflict with official
accounts of armed attacks and operations by Jihadi militants. The ban is part
of an anti-terrorism law that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ratified yesterday
in the absence of an elected parliament.
“Is
journalism is now a crime?” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general
Christophe Deloire asked. “In Egypt
clearly yes, because the Sisi regime is using this new ‘anti-terrorism law’ to
ban journalists from contradicting its own version of events."
“Egyptians
are entering an Orwellian world in which only the government is allowed to say
what is happening. Even in countries where freedom of information is highly
restricted, laws rarely suppress pluralism so blatantly. Egypt is
sinking ever deeper into a terrible despotism that not only wants to control
information and detain journalists but also put them under even more pressure
than during the Mubarak era.”
Published
in the government gazette, the new law provides for fines of 200,000 to 500,000
Egyptian pounds (23,000 to 57,000 euros) for anyone disseminating “false”
information about bombings or other operations by armed groups. A journalist
who, for example, gave a bombing death toll at variance with the government’s,
could be convicted of a criminal offence.
Ever
since Field Marshall Sisi seized power, the authorities have been using the
fight against terrorism as grounds for systematically persecuting journalists
who do not toe the official line.
With
at least 15 journalists currently detained just for doing their job, Egypt is ranked
158th out of 180
countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.
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