Egypt wants journalists to report about travel and tourism, others may get jailed or tortured

Foreign journalists in Egypt are encouraged to report about the beauty of the country, hotels, and attractions within travel and tourism reporting.

Those journalists digging a little deeper may be subject to prosecution and sometimes torture by Egyptian authorities.

According to the latest finding of Amnesty International, the Egyptian government security forces targeted those who criticized the government or expressed dissent. Media workers who documented rights violations or questioned the authorities’ political narrative faced arrest and prosecution. Journalists who reported on army activities faced unfair trials before military courts.

In June, a court in Cairo sentenced three staff members of the Al Jazeera English television station to between seven and 10 years’ imprisonment after a grossly unfair trial. The court convicted Mohamed Fahmy, a Canadian-Egyptian dual national; Peter Greste, an Australian; and Baher Mohamed, an Egyptian, on charges that included aiding the Muslim Brotherhood and reporting “false” news. The prosecution failed to produceany substantive evidence against them, or against other media workers who were tried in their absence.

Some individuals faced prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as “inciting sectarian strife” and/or “defamation of religion”. The authorities also increased monitoring of social media.