In a statement published Thursday (October 1, 2026) on its Facebook page, the Egyptian Ministry of Interior accused the “Mtsadakish” platform of being one of the arms of the Muslim Brotherhood and that it is managed from abroad with the help of some “Brotherhood elements” in the country and that these “elements” receive funding from abroad” for this.
The platform was quick to respond to the “Interior Ministry” statement in a post titled: We are not brothers according to the testimony of the security services.. 5 misleading information in the “Interior Ministry” statement about “Don’t believe it”:
Those whom the Egyptian authorities accuse of being “Brotherhood members” are only six journalists, the entire editorial team of the “Mtsadeqesh” news platform known for criticizing the government. However, the platform not only criticizes the government, but even “Brotherhood channels.” It published a visual report under the title: How did the “Brotherhood” channels spread rumors about the role of (Egyptian President Ghabd al-Fattah) al-Sisi in the Renaissance Dam?
Human rights activist Nour Khalil, executive director of the Refugee Platform in Egypt, said in a post on Facebook that the most stupid decision to arrest journalists was to accuse them of being members of the Brotherhood. He added that whoever enters their platforms will only find “professional” work and verification “with numbers and evidence.”
Journalist and media expert Walid Al-Sheikh stressed in an interview with DW Arabia that “the platform is known for verifying many of the lies broadcast by many members of the Muslim Brotherhood, its supporters, and channels affiliated with it.” Walid Al-Sheikh noted “the clear dissatisfaction of a large number of journalists from all factions, including those close to power” at the Interior Ministry’s statement that linked the platform to the Muslim Brotherhood. He added: “Therefore, the head of the Journalists Syndicate and members of the Syndicate Council expressed their rejection of what happened, and the Syndicate submitted a report to the Public Prosecutor and a complaint to the Minister of Interior to demand the release of the six journalists.”
Mahmoud Kamel, a member of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate Council, described the incident as “crude” and comes within the framework of a “general climate that stifles freedoms.” Kamel told Agence France-Presse on Thursday: “The only crime the detainees committed was performing their journalistic work by researching, analyzing, and revealing the facts.” This is the basic role of journalism.”
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a non-governmental organization, condemned the “security campaign on the platform that was launched on Monday evening (September 28, 2026). According to the organization, four journalists were arrested from their homes in Cairo, Gharbia, and Port Said governorates, while two others were arrested “from a street in Cairo.”
8 years of news verification and verification
Shortly before publishing the aforementioned Interior Ministry statement, the platform confirmed on Wednesday on its Facebook page that what the detained journalists are doing “is professional journalistic work, based on preparing journalistic materials, verifying information, documenting it and publishing it in accordance with professional standards and principles,” demanding immediate disclosure of the locations and reasons for the detention of journalists and enabling them to communicate with their families and lawyers.
“Mtsaddiksh” has been working on verifying and auditing news since 2018, and among its most recent publications is an examination of media statements by the Egyptian Foreign Minister about the numbers of refugees in Egypt.
In another post, the platform talked about “the spread of nepotism in the public prosecution appointments movement.”
“Bankruptcy in the narrative of power”?
Egyptian journalist and media expert based in Berlin, Walid Al-Sheikh, believes that the platform has gained people's "trust." Its basic value is “credibility, not being attached to any political position, and playing the role of a true free press, and sometimes even the role of parliament in holding officials accountable.” He continues, "The most important thing is that it does not present an opinion that can be opposed or contradicted. Rather, it only verifies dozens of false news and statements with evidence and documents, and thus undermines the credibility of all these misleading messages that cannot find anyone to disbelieve them."
The platform describes itself as “an independent platform specialized in verifying Egyptian and Arabic content and producing open source reports and investigations” and has more than 1.3 million followers on Facebook.
Its most important strengths, according to media expert Walid Al-Sheikh, in his interview with DW Arabia, are “methodological neutrality towards different institutions and trends, providing a clear approach that can be repeated, and using open source tools, so that other sites, and even the average reader, can imitate its method to determine the truth of a statement or piece of information from its lies, as well as providing verification in an easy language that the social media audience understands.”
Gamal Eid, head of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information and one of the most prominent human rights activists in Egypt, criticized the arrest of journalists. He re-published the platform’s response to the Interior Ministry’s statement. He had denounced their arrest and demanded “the release of Egypt”:
“Systematic attacks” on basic freedoms
Cairo faces local and international criticism against the backdrop of violations of human rights and freedom of expression, and the continued pretrial detention of defendants despite the expiration of legal periods.
According to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, the number of journalists arrested for doing their work in Egypt reached 26. While the Committee to Protect Journalists says that 19 journalists are currently detained in Egypt. Recently, a massive campaign included the imprisonment of Discord users, online content creators, comedians, and commentators.
The head of the Journalists Syndicate, Khaled Al-Balshi, said in the union’s statement that the majority of imprisoned journalists “exceeded the periods of pretrial detention stipulated in the law, which turned pretrial detention into an extended punishment.”
Egypt ranks 169th on the Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders out of 180 countries.
Human rights organizations say that Egypt is detaining large numbers of dissidents and prisoners of conscience, which the authorities deny, stressing that they are being detained for criminal reasons.
On Wednesday, the Egyptian Parliament approved postponing the start of the new Criminal Procedure Law until October 2027, which included articles limiting the continuation of pretrial detention for long periods, although it sparked local and international controversy over articles related to the fairness of criminal procedures and human rights.
