Egypt media body fines newspaper over election coverage

Egypt’s media regulatory body has fined an Egyptian newspaper 150,000 Egyptian pounds ($8,527.5) and called for an investigation over a front-page report it published saying the state rallied voters to participate in the presidential election.

Sunday’s decision by the Supreme Council for Media Regulation says it has called for an investigation into Al Masry Al Youm by the Press Syndicate, naming its chief and news editors specifically, and demanded that the daily issue an apology to the National Election Authority.

An Egyptian woman walks past an electoral banner commissioned by a member of parliament depicting incumbent President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi seen with a caption reading in Arabic, “For the sake of Egypt, we will continue the story of a nation,” outside a polling station in the capital Cairo’s central neighborhood of Zamalek on March 26, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / KHALED DESOUKI)

Pro-government media and the state’s regulatory bodies have largely criticized foreign media’s coverage of the election.

Since 2017, Egyptian authorities have blocked some 500 websites including those of independent media and rights groups. Several local reporters have also been jailed, and a British journalist was expelled in February.

— AP