Six Matsdaash journalists detained without disclosed reasons or locations
The Matsadaash platform and its legal representative, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), announced Wednesday that six of the platform’s journalists had been arrested over the past 24 hours. EIPR Director Hossam Bahgat described the security campaign as unprecedented in the history of journalism.
In a statement on Tuesday, Matsadaash announced the arrest of journalists Mohamed Ashraf and Abdullah Qadri, editors at the platform, late Monday evening, Sept. 28. On Wednesday, the platform announced that the number of detained staff had risen to six following the arrests of journalists Islam Barakat, Mohamed Adel, Mohamed Mahmoud, and Omar Hilal on Tuesday evening.
According to Wednesday’s statement, “the entire editorial team in the Matsadaash newsroom is now in detention.” The platform called the sweep an “unprecedented development” that “raises serious questions about the measures being taken against an entire newsroom and its journalists, particularly in the absence of any clear explanation for this escalation or its legal basis.”
EIPR said security forces targeted the journalists’ homes across several governorates, including Gharbiya and Port Said, while arresting two others directly from the streets of Cairo. The rights group called on Prosecutor General Mohamed Shawky to open an urgent investigation into the arrests by plainclothes forces, who raided homes, confiscated electronic devices from family members and co-residents, refused to present search or arrest warrants, and withheld all details regarding the journalists’ locations.
In a Facebook post, Hossam Bahgat noted that this is the first time in the two-century history of the Egyptian press that an entire newsroom and all its journalists have been arrested.
Bahgat said the responsibility for the safety and release of the six journalists “falls on the Prosecutor General, the Minister of State for Information, the President of the National Council for Human Rights, and Khaled El-Enany, Director of UNESCO, which is responsible for press freedom worldwide.”
According to Matsadaash, the Egyptian platform operates publicly, and its journalists were performing their professional duty of verifying information and publishing facts in adherence to journalistic standards and constitutional guarantees for freedom of opinion, press and publication.
The platform held relevant authorities fully responsible for the colleagues’ safety, demanding the immediate disclosure of their locations, the reasons for their detention, and immediate access to their lawyers and families.
Eman Ouf, rapporteur of the Freedoms Committee at the Journalists Syndicate, told Al Manassa that the syndicate began communicating with the relevant authorities on Tuesday. She affirmed that “the syndicate is ready to provide all legal support to colleagues without differentiating between syndicate members and non-members.”
Ouf noted that the syndicate is seeking to clear up any misconceptions in hopes of securing their release before the cases reach the Public Prosecution, adding that official complaints have been received from the families and lawyers of four detained colleagues.
Head of the Journalists Syndicate Khaled Elbalshy pointed to the lack of an officially announced reason for the arrests, telling Al Manassa that “arresting them at this time sends a bad message.”
Elbalshy noted that various parties have been working since Tuesday to secure their release prior to prosecution referral, stressing that the syndicate’s legal affairs department is prepared to act as a legal guarantor for all six journalists.
The arrests follow a 2023 incident in which Matsadaash editor Karim Asaad was detained for 48 hours after security forces raided his home to question him over the platform’s coverage of a private plane seized in Zambia.
Zambian authorities announced in August 2023 that the plane, which had departed from Cairo to Lusaka, was found carrying $5.7 million in cash, 602 metal bars suspected to be gold, and five pistols with 126 rounds of ammunition.
Egypt ranks 169th out of 180 countries on the 2026 World Press Freedom Index and remains among the world’s 10 worst jailers of journalists according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
In March 2024, the Journalists Syndicate criticized the continued blocking of several news websites, primarily Al Manassa, which has been blocked 13 times, most recently in July 2022, despite the lifting of blocks on other sites, including Darb, Al-Sulta Al-Rabaa, Zat Misr, and Misr 360.