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Reporter's arrest, abrupt release chills journalists in Egypt

A journalist who had gone to Luxor to cover the recent unrest there was arrested on charges that included the spreading of fake news and belonging to a terrorist group.
TOPSHOT - This picture shows the courtroom and soundproof glass dock (bottom) during the trial of 700 defendants including Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, widely known as Shawkan, in the capital Cairo, on September 8, 2018. - Shawkan, who earlier this year received UNESCO's World Freedom Prize, was on September 8 handed a five-year jail sentence in a trial including over 700 other defendants over charges of killing police and vandalising property during the clashes, some of which were also handed

When small, scattered protests calling for the resignation of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi erupted in several Egyptian towns and villages on Sept. 20 and continued for several days, Egypt's largely pro-government media downplayed the unrest, painting it as a Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy to stir chaos and sow division in the country.

TV talk show host Amr Adib lambasted the Qatari-based Al Jazeera news network and other pro-Muslim Brotherhood channels broadcasting from Turkey and Qatar in an episode of his current affairs show "Al Hekaya" ("The Story") broadcast on the Saudi-owned MBC Masr Channel, for allegedly circulating a “fabricated" video of an anti-government protest in Giza's impoverished district of Nazlet Al Siman. The video in question was allegedly produced by the local United Production Company in its Cairo studios and uploaded to YouTube to demonstrate that those channels air videos without verifying their authenticity, Adib said. He called on Al Jazeera to apologize for the error it had made. 

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