State Prosecution summons Al Masry Al youm chief editor over election coverage

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Thu, 12 Apr 2018 - 02:24 GMT

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Thu, 12 Apr 2018 - 02:24 GMT

“LE 15 million were allocated for the citizens of the constituencies that saw the highest turnout in the New Valley governorate, and 22 free Umrah trips are granted for voters in Qalioubia governorate,” Al-Masry Al youm controversial front-line headlines

“LE 15 million were allocated for the citizens of the constituencies that saw the highest turnout in the New Valley governorate, and 22 free Umrah trips are granted for voters in Qalioubia governorate,” Al-Masry Al youm controversial front-line headlines

CAIRO – 12 April 2018: Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution summoned former editor in chief of Al Masry Al Youm, Mohamed al-Sayed Saleh, alongside eight of the newspaper's correspondents in different governorates concerning the newspaper’s election's controversial headlines.

The Journalist Syndicate delivered the summon request on Tuesday evening and briefed it to the privately-owned newspaper, Al Masry Al-Youm reported on Wednesday.
“For its part, the Journalist Syndicate’s Supreme Council requested the State Supreme Prosecution to postpone the investigations until all the newspaper’s correspondents schedule a return to Cairo,” the report added.

During their meeting on Tuesday, the Journalist Syndicate affirmed its support of the freedom of press and declared that it has been following on closely the ongoing crisis of both Al Masry Al Youm and the online website of Masr Al Arabiya.

The council, therefore, demanded to activate Article 71 of Egypt’s constitution, which prohibits censorship and confiscation of newspapers and media. It also called on the relevant authorities to activate annulment of imprisonment in publishing cases.

Saleh and a politics reporter were under investigation by the Supreme Council for Media Regulation (SCMR) over publishing an article that tackles how the state's institutions interfered in the presidential election.

Egypt's state-run SCMR fined the newspaper LE 150,000 ($8,527) over its coverage, two days after the National Election Authority (NEA) submitted an official complaint against the newspaper to the SCMR. The NEA had demanded an investigation into the newspaper’s election coverage and complained that its coverage implied that the state is interfering in the voting process.

The headline, “The state mobilizes people on the last day of the presidential election”, was highlighted on the newspaper’s front page on March 28, as part of its election coverage, which the National Election Authority (NEA) denounced as “unverified and unfactual”

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