Media union says crackdown puts Egypt "at war" with press

PanARMENIAN.Net - Egypt's journalists' union on Tuesday, May 3 denounced what it called a decline in press freedoms and accused the regime of being "at war" with the profession after two reporters were arrested, AFP reports.

Human rights activists accuse President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of running an ultra-authoritarian regime that has violently suppressed all opposition since toppling Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

On Sunday, police sparked media and opposition outrage by storming the journalists' union building in an unprecedented raid and arresting two reporters.

A day later, the authorities ordered the detention for 15 days of Amr Badr and Mahmud el-Sakka on allegations of incitement to protest.

"This year we mark World Press Freedom Day with Egypt down in all the international rankings," union chief Yahiya Kallash told a press conference ahead of a union general meeting due on Wednesday.

"Instead of seeing the government take concrete measures to overcome this situation, we are surprised to see it escalating the war against journalism and journalists," he said.

Kallash denounced "unprecedented searches of the offices of information providers" and the "practice of censorship before publication."

He said "29 journalists are currently behind bars, some of whom have been in custody for nearly three years".