Egyptian security arrests two journalists while covering the Senate elections

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The representative of the Freedoms Committee of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, Amr Badr, said that the security authorities arrested two journalists while they were covering the Senate elections, whose first round ends on Wednesday. Badr said, via Facebook, on Tuesday, that “the journalist Rasha Munir and a fellow photographer were detained in the 1st of October (west of Cairo) section from one o’clock in the afternoon while they were covering the elections.” He added that he was trying to communicate with leaders in the Ministry of the Interior, “but no one answers the reasons for their detention.”

The Egyptian Ministry of Interior did not issue any statement about the reasons for the arrest of Rasha Munir and her colleague. The Egyptian authorities impose severe restrictions on coverage of the elections. They have previously imposed sanctions on newspapers and websites that revealed electoral bribes.

Egypt ranks 166th in Reporters without Borders’ press freedom ranking for 2020, which includes 180 countries.