The crackdown on press freedom in the Middle East isn’t new — and it has only intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic and following the recent wave of protests that took place two years ago in the region.
“I think it’s safe to say that press freedom has only worsened post-2019 protests,” said Kareem Chehayeb, an independent journalist in Lebanon. In 2020, “journalists in Iraq were killed in a gunman attack and a number of arrests took place in Egypt where security forces raided Haisam Hasan Mahgoub’s home [a correspondent for the Egyptian daily Al Masry Al Youm], and arrested him for terror charges,” he continued. “The editor-in-chief of Mada Masr, Lina Atallah, was arrested for reporting on the detained Egyptian activist Alaa Abdelfattah.”
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