Egyptian journalists urge to meet Sisi over anti-press attack

The Egyptian Journalists Syndicate urged on Monday for a meeting with President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi over what they referred to as "fierce attack against journalism," the state-run Ahram news website reported.

The bid came after a meeting on Monday between the syndicate's council and the editors-in-chief of all Egyptian national, partisan and private newspapers to discuss the ongoing pressures facing journalists and the restriction of their freedom of expression.

"The participants in the meeting demanded an urgent meeting with President Sisi to announce their position against the obvious limitation of freedom of journalism in violation of the law and the constitution," chief of the press syndicate Yehia Flash said following the meeting.

Journalists have been faced with pressures in Egypt since the removal of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in early July 2013, which triggered a massive crackdown on his supporters that extended to opposition activists and journalists.

In addition to thousands of Morsi's loyalists who are in custody over violence charges, dozens of liberal activists and journalists have been jailed or released on bail over opposition of the current regime.

On June 10, hundreds of journalists marked the annual Egyptian Press Freedom Day with a protest against "the fragile environment in which journalists work, the arbitrary dismissal of journalists at printed papers, the dangers facing journalists while doing their job and their trial in publishing cases," according to the Journalists Syndicate official website. Endit