Egyptian secret police have arrested an award-winning Australian journalist and an Egyptian reporter for the Qatar-based al-Jazeera channel on suspicion of illegally broadcasting news harming “domestic security,” the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior said.
Al-Jazeera confirmed the arrests in a statement, adding that police had also detained a producer and a cameraman.
Officers raided the journalists’ makeshift bureau at a Cairo hotel on Sunday, arresting two of them and confiscating their equipment, the ministry said in a statement.
It did not identify the journalists, only mentioning that one was a “Muslim Brotherhood member” and the other an Australian.
Al-Jazeera English identified them as Cairo bureau chief Mohamed Adel Fahmy and Australian reporter Peter Greste, adding that producer Baher Mohamed and cameraman Mohamed Fawzi were also arrested.
The raid came after Cairo listed the Brotherhood movement of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi as a “terrorist organization,” making membership in the Islamist group or even possession of its literature.
The journalists “broadcast live news harming domestic security,” the ministry said, adding they were also found in possession of Muslim Brotherhood “publications.”
Greste, a former BBC journalist, won the prestigious Peabody Award in 2011 for a documentary on Somalia. Fahmy, who formerly worked with CNN, is a well-known journalist in Cairo with no known links to the Brotherhood.
Egypt’s military-installed government cracked down on al-Jazeera’s affiliates after Morsi’s ouster in July, accusing it of pro-Brotherhood coverage.
Several al-Jazeera reporters remain in detention, including Abdullah Elshamy, who was arrested on Aug. 14 when police dispersed an Islamist protest camp in Cairo, killing hundreds in clashes.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report that Egypt came third for number of journalists killed on the job this year, after Syria and Iraq.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique