EGYPT CRACKS DOWN ON NEWS WEBSITES

CAIRO: Egypt’s government has blocked access to a host of news websites including Al-Jazeera.

Around 20 websites have been inaccessible since Wednesday night, including the Doha newspapers Al-Watan and Al-Raya, the Ikhwan Online and Egypt-based Al-Sharq television.

Independent sites such as Mada Masr, which takes a strong stand against corruption, and Huffpost Arabi, the Arabic edition of the Huffington Post, have also been cut for Egyptian web surfers.

It is not the first time that Al-Jazeera has run foul of Sisi’s administration. Three Al-Jazeera journalists, including a Canadian and an Australian, were detained between 2013 and 2015, triggering international protests.

Timothy Kaldas, a non-resident fellow at the Washington-based Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, said the latest crackdown appeared to be aimed at curbing discontent in Egypt and enacted without fear of consequences.

“More and more people are frustrated in Egypt in general. So they want to stop the critical information which could increase the frustration,” he said.

And after President Abdel Fattah al Sisi met US President Donald Trump last weekend, Cairo had “realised there will be no pressure coming from the United States... where as before they would have been criticised”.

On Thursday, Mada Masr posted on its Twitter account a cartoon of a man in front of a closed wooden door standing in the desert with the caption: “We have confirmed Mada Masr’s website has been blocked. Stay tuned on how to find us again.”

Huffpost Arabi, in a tweet of its own, calls on readers to use its Facebook page.

An anti-terrorism law, adopted in August 2015, lays down stiff penalties for publishing “false information” on attacks in Egypt that contradicts official reports from the country’s defence ministry, stirring condemnation from rights groups.

— AFP