Matsadaash team detention sparks fresh calls for information freedom law
Egyptian rights advocates, politicians, and researchers on Monday evening renewed demands for long-delayed freedom of information legislation, as authorities placed six journalists from the independent media platform Matsadaash into pre-trial detention.
Panelists at an event organized by the Rights and Freedoms Secretariat of the Conservative Party’s Executive Council warned that the absence of clear statutory rules governing access to public records forces journalists and researchers to navigate uncharted boundaries, exposing routine reporting and fact-finding to severe legal and security perils.
Security forces arrested the entire editorial team of Matsadaash on Sept. 28 and 29, subjecting them to enforced disappearance for five days before presenting them to the Supreme State Security Prosecution.
Prosecutors ordered the journalists held in pre-trial detention for 15 days pending investigation on charges of “spreading false news and joining a terrorist group,” amid allegations that security forces subjected them to torture—claims that the Ministry of Interior later denied.
The discussion drew former member of parliament Samira El-Gazzar, digital media and human rights researcher Viola Fahmy, human rights lawyer Nourhan Hassan, and Aya Abdel Hamid, a researcher and rights secretary for the Conservative Party, alongside party delegates and civic activists.
Right to know
Khalil Marei, head of the Conservative Party’s Technical Bureau, described information as “power and a citizen’s right,” noting that the Egyptian Constitution guarantees both the right to knowledge and the free circulation of information.
Marei argued that the core dilemma has evolved in recent years from an era of data scarcity to one of relentless “information flow.” This transformation presents fresh challenges concerning factual accuracy, source verification, and data deployment. Leaving the public sphere bereft of verifiable information generates an “information vacuum” that alternative actors will inevitably exploit.
“Like it or not, another entity will fill that void,” Marei said.
He directly linked information access to the fight against corruption and the overhaul of the state administrative apparatus. A lack of transparency shields institutional abuses, he said, whereas public disclosure exposes systemic dysfunction and holds culpable officials accountable.
Article 68 of the 2014 Egyptian Constitution stipulates that “information, data, statistics, and official documents are the property of the people.” The charter mandates that the state guarantee public disclosure from diverse sources, while requiring a law to govern access procedures, transparency standards, confidentiality rules, and appeals against denials.
Marei asserted that any upcoming bill must not isolate Article 68 from the broader constitutional framework, but must tie it to provisions protecting scientific research, the knowledge economy, freedom of communication, freedom of expression, press freedom, and creative liberty.
He noted a “glimmer of hope” for ratification, stressing that ensuring the draft law genuinely protects the public’s right to know matters far more than rushing an inadequate bill through parliament.
A grey area
For independent researchers, the dilemma extends beyond securing raw figures to assessing whether state data deserves any trust at all.
Aya Abdel Hamid said she regularly struggles to obtain the basic data required for her research, pointing to fraudulent figures within certain state agencies that fail to reflect reality. Researchers, she emphasized, require credible source material to produce valid findings and empirical studies.
The problem, Abdel Hamid explained, goes deeper than access alone; it lies in the state’s refusal to define clear boundaries between permissible and forbidden reporting.
“I do not know the dividing line between what is permissible to publish and what is not,” Abdel Hamid said. “Sometimes I fear being arrested if I publish that a loaf of bread in my neighborhood costs 2.5 pounds.”
A definitive statute, she argued, would delineate clear rights for researchers and journalists while dispelling the perpetual climate of fear spawned by opaque, arbitrary standards.
Viola Fahmy argued that ruling authorities benefit directly from this persistent ambiguity, stating that Egypt has operated for roughly 15 years without independent journalism as the profession shrank into tracking superficial social media trends.
Who pays the price?
Fahmy warned that any journalist attempting to pursue rigorous professional reporting faces severe retaliation and risks being forcibly disappeared with no recourse. She cited a prison tally of 22 journalists currently behind bars across the country, in addition to the six newly detained staff members from Matsadaash.
Demanding statutory access to public information does not entail an unregulated release of state secrets, Fahmy clarified. She acknowledged that bona fide national security files, such as the military budget and arms procurement, cannot enter public circulation.
“That is a red line we do not want to cross,” Fahmy said.
However, she demanded full transparency for data that directly touches daily survival, such as epidemiological records, healthcare indicators, and the underlying rationales behind transport and education policies—metrics that allow citizens to comprehend and assess public policy.
The right to know underpins civic trust, institutional transparency, anti-corruption efforts, and foreign investment, Fahmy noted, questioning how the state expects to draw capital while withholding basic regulatory clarity. She described Egyptian society as the victim of “deliberate information illiteracy,” warning that withholding official records drives the public toward unreliable alternative sources.
“People, release the information, and stop handcuffing people,” Fahmy concluded.
No accountability without information
Former lawmaker Samira El-Gazzar criticized the legislature for shelving the freedom of information bill during the prior parliamentary term, alongside other foundational legislation including the anti-discrimination commission bill.
Data blackouts cripple not only researchers and the press, El-Gazzar said, but paralyze parliament itself. She highlighted deliberations over the Old Rent Law, where the House of Representatives engaged statistical and research bodies to establish the number of occupied units, tenants, and landlords, yet failed to receive accurate figures on which to base legislative policy.
Accurate data remains a prerequisite for any meaningful opposition, El-Gazzar argued, observing that while delegates to the state-sponsored National Dialogue repeatedly urged authorities to unblock the public sphere and release information, the regime failed to translate these appeals into binding law.
Hazem El-Mallah, head of the Press and Communication Committee at the Al-Wa’y Party, emphasized that the constitutional right to information belongs to every citizen, not journalists alone. Current state restrictions extend well beyond bureaucratic files to photography and videography, leaving ordinary citizens exposed to criminal prosecution simply for filming public spaces.
Al-Mallah noted ongoing efforts to finalize a freedom of information draft during the current legislative term, revealing that the Al-Wa’y Party is currently drafting its own bill.
Although Egypt’s 2014 Constitution explicitly codifies access to public documents, successive parliaments have avoided passing an implementing statute. The issue has recently regained political momentum.
In August, Khaled Elbalshy, head of the Journalists Syndicate, announced that the syndicate had submitted a comprehensive draft law to the House of Representatives after Representative Maha Abdel Nasser of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party sponsored the measure and collected endorsing signatures from 60 lawmakers.
In April, Minister of State for Information Diaa Rashwan claimed the government intended to enact a freedom of information law following discussions in the “National Dialogue” sessions. Rashwan reaffirmed that stance in September during an assembly with news site editors-in-chief, asserting that the government maintains an active interest in accelerating the draft legislation.