In an “unprecedented” move, Egypt’s main state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram published on Tuesday an editorial criticizing the interior ministry’s controversial decision to storm the Press Syndicate on Sunday to arrest two journalists from inside the building. Police arrested Amr Badr and Mahmoud El Sakka, two journalists, from inside the Press Syndicate after security forces stormed the building on Sunday night in a move described by the syndicate’s head as “unprecedented” and a “violation of law.” The interior ministry published a statement accusing Badr and El-Sakka of “hiding” and using the syndicate as a “safe haven” and capitalizing on the involvement of the syndicate to create a crisis and cause chaos between all parties involved. The ministry also denied the storming of the syndicate, saying that only eight police officers were sent out to arrest the journalists. Tuesday’s editorial described Sunday’s incident as “unacceptable actions against freedom” on the ministry’s part, saying that “the interior ministry has committed a number of mistakes during the past period…and will not succeed in its malicious goal of shutting mouths and suppressing freedoms of opinion and expression, which are outlined in the constitution that was not read by…
Egypt’s State-Owned Al-Ahram Publishes ‘Unprecedented’ Editorial Taking Aim at Interior Ministry
May 3, 2016
