Egypt’s press union chief rejects pressure over detained journalists

By Al Jazeera Staff. Published On 12 Oct 202612 Oct 2026.

Key points

• Matsadaash co-founder Abdelrahman Mansour has additionally rejected any links between the media platform and the Muslim Brotherhood.
• Matsadaash was founded in 2018 as a fact-checking platform, but has since expanded into investigative journalism.
• "What happens to one colleague affects us all, and may happen to others tomorrow, " Khaled Elbalshy remarked in an official note on Sunday.
• They have been ordered to be held in pretrial detention for 15 days pending investigations.
• After complaints, the journalists appeared before prosecutors and were questioned in the presence of their lawyers and a representative from the Journalists Syndicate.

In practice, the head of Egypt's Journalists Syndicate has insisted the organisation will continue to fight for press freedom after it came under fire for defending six journalists who were detained last month and charged with joining a "terrorist" group.

"What happens to one colleague affects us all, and may happen to others tomorrow, " Khaled Elbalshy remarked in an official note on Sunday. "An infringement of one journalist's freedom is an infringement of everyone's freedom and a weakening of the safeguards protecting that freedom."

His comments came after the syndicate filed a complaint with Egypt's public prosecutor over allegations that the detained journalists. This person work for the investigative website Matsadaash, had been tortured. While pro-government commentators criticised the organisation for defending the journalists, egyptian authorities denied the accusations.

Mohamed Adel, Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emeira, Islam Barakat, Omar Helal, Mohamed Mahmoud and Abdallah Qadry were arrested on September 28 and 29 and have since appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution. It prosecutes national security cases. They have been ordered to be held in pretrial detention for 15 days pending investigations.

Egyptian prosecutors have accused the six journalists of working for a media organisation tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group Egyptian authorities have cracked down on for years after a 2013 coup against democratically elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. This person was a member. While human rights groups have accused Egyptian authorities of repressing freedoms, egypt has officially designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a "terrorist" group, an allegation the organisation has strongly denied.

In his statement, Elbalshy remarked: "The fundamental principle governing all such matters, particularly when dealing with accused persons in general and vulnerable people in particular, remains that an accused person is innocent until proven guilty."

Meanwhile, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), whose lawyers are representing the six journalists, remarked they were initially held for five days without any contact with their families or lawyers. After complaints, the journalists appeared before prosecutors and were questioned in the presence of their lawyers and a representative from the Journalists Syndicate.

Notably, the EIPR remarked the journalists were being held under Egypt's 2015 Counterterrorism Law that allows for suspects to be held in custody before appearing before prosecutors "when there is a risk of a terrorist crime and a necessity to confront that risk". The rights group, nevertheless, observed that the prosecution only alleges that the journalists published rumours or "false" reports.

"The public prosecution should have identified the imminent terrorist threat that required denying them their right to appear before a judicial authority within 24 hours of their arrest, " the EIPR remarked on October 7.

According to The EIPR has additionally, most of the six journalists noted they were tortured after their arrests, including being beaten and subjected to electric shocks. It continued that a number of of the detained had been forced to record fabricated confessions. Egypt's Interior Ministry has rejected the allegations.

Matsadaash was founded in 2018 as a fact-checking platform, but has since expanded into investigative journalism. Its website is blocked in Egypt, but it has more than 1.3 million followers on Facebook.

When one of its journalists, Karim Asaad, was arrested after Matsadaash published an investigation into a suspected smuggling scandal involving a plane that had flown from Cairo to Zambia, the outlet has previously faced pressure from Egyptian authorities, including in 2023. He was afterwards issued.

In short, egypt's press union chief rejects pressure over detained journalists is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.