Egyptian websites and activists announced that the Egyptian authorities had arrested the journalist Mohamed Essawi on charges of collaborating with Al-Jazeera, and decided to imprison him for 15 days pending investigation.
Journalist Essawi works for the "Cairo 24" news website, which is considered close to the security services. The website said that Esawi was arrested while covering the "Damashli" ferryboat sinking accident in the Kom Hamada center in the Beheira governorate.
The Kom Hamada prosecutor in the Al-Buhaira governorate decided to imprison the colleague for 15 days on charges of spreading false news and participating in the achievement of its objectives by broadcasting for the benefit of Al-Jazeera.
The "Cairo 24" website confirmed that Issawi works as a correspondent for him in the Beheira governorate, and that he does not work for Al-Jazeera or any newspapers or other websites, and appealed to the security services to release him.
This year saw the addition of 7 new journalists to a long list of journalists in Egyptian prisons. According to Reporters Without Borders, Egypt is one of the largest prisons for journalists in the region.
According to the organization's latest ranking on press freedom in 2020 issued on April 21, Egypt has fallen to 166th in the global press freedom ranking out of 180 countries.