A New York-based group of journalists say there is an “unprecedented threat” to journalists in Egypt, where Obama backs the current regime.
The threat to journalists under Egypt’s regime of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi is “unprecedented,” the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), warned Thursday.
President Barack Obama has backed the Al-Sisi regime after backing, and then turning his back, on Hosni Mubarak and then Mohammed Morsi of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood party.
In a report filed by The Associated Press, the committee of journalists said that Egypt has imprisoned 18 news reporters , mostly for accusations that they are affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
“CPJ spoke to high-level officials, including the prosecutor-general and the minister of transitional justice, who denied that Egypt was holding any journalists in jail in relation to their work,” the group said. “But CPJ research shows that the government of el-Sisi … has used the pretext of national security to crack down on human rights, including press freedom.
One case cited is that of Mahmoud Abou-Zeid, arrested in August 2013 while taking photographs of the violent dispersal of a pro-Morsi protest where Al-Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ‘s police and army killed hundreds of demonstrators.
The journalist still is in prison, but no charges have been filed.