(Beirut) – Egyptian security forces arrested six journalists working for the independent investigative journalism platform Matsda2sh on September 28 and 29, 2026, and appear to have forcibly disappeared them, Human Rights Watch said today. The journalists’ whereabouts are unknown and their families and lawyers have not been permitted contact with them.
Security forces arrested the journalists in raids across the country. They are: Abdallah Qadry, Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emeira, Islam Barakat, Omar Helal, Mohamed Mahmoud, and Mohamed Adel. The six journalists constitute the investigate platform’s entire editorial newsroom.
“Egyptian authorities’ simultaneous arrest of the entire newsroom at a prominent independent news platform is deeply alarming,” said Bassam Khawaja, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Dismantling an entire newsroom in a matter of hours without warning or cause sends a chilling message to all journalists working in Egypt and shows just how little space is left there for critical reporting.”
Matsda2sh was established in 2018 and publishes investigations and verifies information on issues of public interest in Egypt and the wider region.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), whose lawyers represent all six journalists, said in a statement that security personnel who raided some of the journalists’ homes did not present arrest or search warrants and did not disclose the basis for their arrests or where they would be held. Security personnel also seized electronic devices belonging to the journalists and their family members.
On October 1, Egypt’s Interior Ministry acknowledged the arrests and said the six journalists were suspected of preparing what it described as “fabricated news” for Matsda2sh and alleged that the platform is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, an international Islamic social and political movement. The ministry did not, in its statement, identify the specific criminal charges the journalists face or disclose where they were being held. The platform has denied the allegations.
More than 80 organizations including Human Rights Watch condemned the arrests and called for the release of the journalists.
The arrests of the Matsda2sh journalists come amid longstanding restrictions on independent journalism and freedom of expression in Egypt. The country remains one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists, with 25 journalists behind bars, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
In September 2025, authorities detained an independent journalist, Ismail Iskandarani, over Facebook posts and charged him with offenses including “spreading false news” and “belonging to a terrorist organization.” In 2026, the authorities prosecuted and imprisoned a writer and activist, Ahmed Douma, on “false news” charges stemming from an article and a social media post about detention conditions in Egypt.
Human Rights Watch has previously documented repeated arrests and prosecutions of peaceful critics, human rights defenders, journalists, and online content creators in Egypt. Egyptian authorities routinely flout due process protections and security forces subject individuals under investigation to forcible disappearance, holding them in various places of detention.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt is a party, protects the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas. Under international law, the detention or abduction of a person by state forces, followed by the authorities’ refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or reveal the person’s whereabouts or situation, may constitute an enforced disappearance.
“The incommunicado detention and potential enforced disappearance of six journalists raises serious concerns for their safety and due process rights,” Khawaja said. “Egyptian authorities should immediately disclose their whereabouts, grant access to their lawyers and families, and ensure that no journalist is detained or prosecuted for exercising their right to freedom of expression or for doing their job.”
