Carolyn Beeler: How did this wave of arrests unfold?

Timothy Kaldas: The authorities started, on Monday, tracking down individual journalists. They raided some of their homes, seized all of their electronics, as well as the electronics of their relatives. A couple of them were arrested on the streets. This happened across multiple governorates throughout Egypt. So, it was quite a significant operation.

I understand that the government has claimed that the journalists were affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. That is a common accusation used to justify detaining people in Egypt. Is that right?

People get accused of it all the time. The government has, to somewhat absurd extent, used that accusation to explain anything that they don’t like. They blamed flooding in Alexandria one time on the Muslim Brotherhood. They blamed the country’s entire hard currency shortage on them. It became a running joke at one point in Egypt. And so, it’s a very untenable claim. The other thing to keep in mind is Matsaddsash, the news outlet, responded to this accusation pointing out that just days ago, before the arrests, they had debunked a claim that was circulating in the media associated with the actual Muslim Brotherhood, and they’ve been doing this repeatedly. So, the idea that they’re a front for the Muslim Brotherhood just doesn’t make any sense, if you actually look at their reporting.

And this was one of just a few remaining independent news outlets in Egypt. How did Egypt get to this point of such limited press freedom?

There’s been a systemic effort by the regime, ever since the coup d’état that took place in 2013, to really dismantle any sort of independent or critical media outlets, as well as freedoms more broadly. Literally, moments after the coup was announced in 2013, a number of news stations were taken offline, and they’ve also blocked hundreds of websites, including many media websites, to prevent people from accessing independent media, including outlets that are working in Egypt. On top of that, even journalists who are Egyptian working outside the country find their families being targeted by the regime inside of Egypt.

Nineteen journalists were already in custody before this round of arrests, but I understand that you see this crackdown as something a bit distinct from what has come before. Why is that?

While Egypt has long been one of the worst jailers of journalists in the world, it’s completely unprecedented that an entire newsroom be arrested in one go. Normally, they target individual journalists. So, this is a new escalation that we’ve never seen before, actually, in the history of Egypt.

Is there an understanding of why the president would’ve taken this step right now?

It’s not clear, to be honest with you. There is a broader sensitivity about any sort of political criticism, or any sort of critical coverage right now. But in addition to that, there’s just rising public discontent with the government, and so they’re constantly trying to quash anyone who could present a framing of the situation that’s different than the official line. The trouble with that is the source of public anger, primarily, is due to the economic deterioration in Egypt. You can’t censor the price of tomatoes, chicken or eggs. You can’t censor rising rents and fuel prices, and you can’t censor rising poverty. The Egyptian government stopped publishing poverty data in 2020 because of how bad things were getting, but it’s not like people don’t know that they’re poor.

People are still living it every single day, even if they’re not reading about it.

Exactly, and while they’re living all of these things, while hunger is rising in Egypt, they’re watching the government spend on lavish projects. So, Egyptians are denied public services, denied social protection, facing higher poverty, and that’s quite provocative.

Is there a larger global context as to why this crackdown on journalists might be happening now?

Absolutely. It’s just this week that we’re learning that the US has used a national security waiver on the human rights conditions for Egypt’s military assistance. While over the summer, the European Union erroneously certified that Egypt had made progress on human rights to disburse 1.5 billion euros ($1.68 billion) to the Egyptian government. So, Egypt is getting this sense of impunity, with respect to its international partners, when it comes to human rights and that could have fostered the will to pursue this crackdown, assuming that there won’t be any consequences.

So, as the government continues to crack down on journalists and further limit press freedom, what is the landscape for Egyptians trying to get reliable information from inside the country? Are there ways to do it?

They can use VPNs to get around the website blocks, but again, that’s going to be a certain level of sophisticated user. There’s a lot of stuff that’s independent, but not necessarily good quality, that’s being streamed through YouTube and other types of social media networks that the government hasn’t been able to fully control. There’s a handful of other independent news outlets operating in Egypt, under extraordinary pressure as well, whose journalists have also been arrested on multiple occasions. They’re still doing really critical work but it is a difficult environment, and there’s only so much that this small group of remaining independent journalists can do, given how small a number they are. So, their capacity to cover this country of over 100 million people isn’t going to be up to what Egyptians should be able to access. It is a challenging situation, no doubt.

Human rights and press freedom organizations are calling for the release of these six Matsaddash journalists who were apprehended this week. Is there any indication of that happening?