CAIRO — Egypt has hired an undisclosed US public relations firm to counter negative reports about the country and boost its image abroad. Government officials expect the effort to improve investment in Egypt, while activists see it as an attempt to cover up or gloss over economic hardship and human rights violations. The Dec. 23 announcement ignited social media reactions against the government.
Yet as recently as this week President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi denied on "60 Minutes" a Human Rights Watch report that Egypt is holding 60,000 political prisoners.