Egypt lists 33 journalists on 'terror' watch list

The Egyptian authorities have listed 82 people on a new "terrorism" watch list, including 33 journalists, as well as activists, politicians and human rights defenders. Those on the list live in exile. 

The names include politician and activist Ayman Nour, a former presidential candidate who ran in the 2005 elections against late ousted president Hosni Mubarak, Arab Media Freedom Monitor (IKshef) said in a statement on Saturday.

The journalists added to the list mostly work for TV channels broadcasting from Turkey and the Doha-based Al Jazeera network, the statement added. Nour is the head of the Turkey-based Al-Sharq TV channel.    

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has run the country with an iron fist ever since seizing power in a 2013 coup. Media freedom and civil rights have sharply deteriorated since then.

Over 500 local and international websites of organisations and news outlets, including Human Rights Watch, Al Jazeera Arabic and Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, the sister company of The New Arab, have been blocked in the country.

Last week, Egyptian Al-Jazeera journalist Hisham Abdel-Aziz was released by a presidential pardon after being detained for almost four years. Two more Al-Jazeera journalists are still detained in Egypt, a country ranked as the world's third-worst jailer of journalists.

Al Jazeera and Egyptian TV channels based in Turkey have broadcast material critical of Sisi ever since he overthrew former President Mohammed Morsi in the 2013 coup.

Many members of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group, designated a "terrorist group" in Egypt since 2014, have fled the country to Qatar and Turkey.

Tens of thousands who remained behind in Egypt have been detained, with some being sentenced to death and others dying as a result of torture or medical neglect.