Egyptian editor briefly detained in Covid-19 reporting crackdown | World news | The Guardian: Lina Attalah, the editor-in-chief of the website Mada Masr, was arrested outside Tora prison in the south of Cairo while interviewing the mother of a jailed activist attempting to bring medication and hand sanitiser to her son.
The activist, Abd El Fattah, has been on hunger strike since mid-April in protest at deteriorating prison conditions, including the risk of the spread of coronavirus as well as the suspension of visits and trial hearings due to the pandemic.
Atallah was taken to a police station and held for undisclosed charges, before she was questioned by a prosecutor. She was later ordered to be released on bail of 2,000 Egyptian pounds (�105).
Mada Masr reported that Attalah’s mobile phone was seized and the media outlet’s lawyer was prevented from seeing Atallah while in detention.
The journalist was recognised by Time magazine as a “new-generation leader,” in 2017, when she was branded the “muckraker of the Arab world”. Mada Masr is internationally recognised as the last bastion of press freedom in Egypt, a lone award-winning independent outlet in a repressive media environment where the majority of newspapers are state-controlled.
The activist, Abd El Fattah, has been on hunger strike since mid-April in protest at deteriorating prison conditions, including the risk of the spread of coronavirus as well as the suspension of visits and trial hearings due to the pandemic.
Atallah was taken to a police station and held for undisclosed charges, before she was questioned by a prosecutor. She was later ordered to be released on bail of 2,000 Egyptian pounds (�105).
Mada Masr reported that Attalah’s mobile phone was seized and the media outlet’s lawyer was prevented from seeing Atallah while in detention.
The journalist was recognised by Time magazine as a “new-generation leader,” in 2017, when she was branded the “muckraker of the Arab world”. Mada Masr is internationally recognised as the last bastion of press freedom in Egypt, a lone award-winning independent outlet in a repressive media environment where the majority of newspapers are state-controlled.