The head of Egypt’s Journalists Syndicate has insisted that the organisation will continue to fight for press freedom despite facing heavy criticism for defending six journalists who were detained last month and charged with joining a so-called "terrorist" group.

In a statement released on Sunday, Khaled Elbalshy asserted that what happens to one colleague affects everyone and could happen to others tomorrow. He claimed that an infringement on a single journalist's freedom undermines the safeguards protecting the rights of society as a whole.

These remarks followed the syndicate's formal complaint to Egypt’s public prosecutor regarding allegations that the detained reporters, who work for the investigative platform Matsadaash, had been subjected to torture in custody. Egyptian authorities have dismissed the accusations, while pro-government commentators publicly criticized the syndicate for intervening.

The journalists—Mohamed Adel, Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emeira, Islam Barakat, Omar Helal, Mohamed Mahmoud, and Abdallah Qadry—were arrested on September 28 and 29 and ordered to 15 days of pretrial detention. Prosecutors allege they were linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization outlawed by Egyptian authorities, though legal representatives and rights groups maintain that the case is an assault on independent reporting.

Source: www.aljazeera.com