At a quiet corner of an apartment in Cairo, Palestinian journalists now sit staring at a blank screen. Just months ago, they were reporting from the heart of Gaza – documenting airstrikes, interviewing survivors, filing stories that made global headlines.
Today, they’re unemployed, unheard, and in exile.
More than 250 journalists from Gaza are now living in Egypt after fleeing the Israeli military campaign that began in October 2023, according to figures from the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, which now has a presence in Cairo. Others have evacuated the Strip for countries including Oman, Qatar, Turkey and Canada since the start of what we call a genocide.
Once at the frontlines of war reporting, these journalists are now caught in a different kind of crisis – one marked by silencing, legal limbo, and professional erasure.
Most of these journalists were freelancers, with no long-term contracts, no medical insurance, no institutional protection, and no guarantee of employment after evacuation. Their cameras are packed away. Their microphones sit unused. Without work permits, they can’t be legally employed in Egypt, and with little to no support, many are struggling to survive.
“I was a journalist until the day I crossed the border.” “Now, I am just a refugee with a press card that no longer holds any weight.” This is how Palestinian journalists describe their current situation.
A minority of journalists who worked with international news outlets – those with permanent staff contracts – have been more fortunate. Some were able to join the bureaus of their agencies abroad, while others continue to receive their salaries, even while displaced. But for the vast majority, the collapse of Gaza’s media infrastructure has left them jobless, voiceless, and adrift.
And the barriers are not only bureaucratic – they are political. Egypt has denied work permits to Palestinians evacuating the war in Gaza, including professionals, journalists, and academics.
This policy effectively bars Gaza’s journalists from continuing their work. No matter their skills, credentials, or experience, they are not allowed to contribute to the media landscape in the country where they have sought refuge.
Worse still, for those of us who worked for Al Jazeera, a separate wall exists.
The Qatari-based network has been banned in Egypt since 2011, following the uprising that overthrew the former president Hosni Mubarak. Its bureau was shut down, and journalists affiliated with the network were subjected to persecution and arrests. Today, more than a decade later, that ban remains in place. This means that Al Jazeera journalists from Gaza, now exiled in Egypt, are prohibited from working, even remotely, fearing the risk of being persecuted.
Having worked as an Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza, I now find myself among those silenced – not because I’ve stopped caring, not because I’ve lost the will to report, but because the system has made it impossible for me to continue. The war didn’t just displace us from our homes; it severed us from our profession, from our identities, and from the world we once informed.
Our voices were once loud enough to echo around the world. Now we whisper into the void. The silence is devastating – not just professionally, but emotionally and psychologically.
For journalists, reporting is not just a job. It is a calling and a mission. We bear witness, we document truth, we speak for the voiceless. Being denied the right to report is like being denied the right to breathe.
Many journalists now live in small apartments, surviving on the goodwill of friends, NGOs, or savings that are quickly running out. Some are supporting children and elderly family members, with no income and no clarity on what the future holds. The stress is enormous. The uncertainty is constant.
And yet, the genocide in Gaza continues. Our colleagues who remain inside – those who survived airstrikes, lost family members, or saw their homes flattened – continue to risk everything to report. But even they are running out of tools, electricity, and time. Many of them rely on us in exile to amplify their voices. And we are desperate to do so, but unable.
The consequences of this silencing reach far beyond individual careers. They represent a systemic erasure of the Palestinian narrative. At a time when truth-telling is critical, Gaza’s journalists – those who carry the first-hand accounts, the context, the memory – are being sidelined.
This is not just a loss for us. It’s a loss for journalism, for history, for the world.
The international community, especially global media outlets and press freedom organisations, must act. Gaza’s exiled journalists need legal recognition, support, and pathways to work – whether through temporary relocation programmes, freelance partnerships, or legal aid to navigate the permit systems.
We need allies; we need solidarity; we need our roles as truth-tellers to be restored.
We didn’t choose to leave. We fled for survival. But we still carry the burden of our people’s stories. We still carry the fire and drive to tell them. What we need now is the space and permission to speak.
In his book You have not yet been defeated, the 42-year-old British-Egyptian imprisoned activist, software engineer, and writer, Alaa Abd el-Fattah writes: “I am in prison because the regime wants to make an example of us.”Yesterday, 29 September 2024, was due to be the end of his five-year sentence – but as this milestone passes with him still behind bars, his words remain true.
“[Alaa] is extremely nervous that this unprecedented move takes him beyond even arbitrary detention into something worse and that he may never be released,” Omar Hamilton, Abd el-Fattah’s cousin told Index on Censorship.
Abd el-Fattah has been imprisoned in Egypt for most of the last decade, aside from a brief period of release in 2019.
During President Hosni Mubarak’s regime, he became a vocal pro-democracy campaigner via his blog, Manalaa, which he ran with his wife, Manal Hassan. This increased during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution where he rose to prominence for his on-the-ground activism and political discourse.
Abd el-Fattah was arrested in November 2013, following the military coup led by now-President Abdel-Fattah el Sisi. He was sentenced to five years in prison for organising a protest.
After briefly being released, on 29 September 2019, he was once again detained along with his lawyer, Mohamed Baker, on several charges including “joining a terrorist group”, “funding a terrorist group”, “disseminating false news”, and using social media “to commit a publishing offence”. The pair were subjected to a grossly unfair trial and held in pretrial detention for 31 months. Yesterday, Abd el-Fattah completed his five-year sentence, which included his pretrial detention. However, the authorities show no signs of letting him go.
“I’m in detention as a preventative measure because of a state of political crisis – and a fear that I will engage with it,” said Abd el-Fattah in his statement to the prosecutor in January 2020.
During his time behind bars, Abd el-Fattah has been subjected to both physical and psychological torture. In 2022, the activist underwent an extended hunger strike and then refused water as COP27 began in Egypt. The strike was ended by force after prison authorities intervened.
In an interview with Index on Censorship in 2022, Abd el-Fattah’s sister, Mona Seif said: “In the eyes of the Egyptian regime Alaa is one of the symbols of [the] 25th January [2011 revolution] and therefore one of those calling for an end to the leadership of the military regime.
This much is true. While a few political prisoners in Egypt have been released over the years, Abd el-Fattah and Baker continue to be held with no sign of release. After all, it was President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi who personally ratified their verdicts in January 2022.
Abd el-Fattah is a British citizen and his family, also British citizens, have dedicated much of their campaign for his release to encouraging the UK government to take action.
“The Labour Government needs to show that it is not a continuation of the Conservatives, and David Lammy needs to prove that he did not make strident statements and promises to Alaa’s family when he was in opposition that he can just drop once in power,” Hamilton explained.
The Free Alaa campaign is calling on the British government to take real action to secure the release of one of its citizens. They are encouraging UK nationals to write to their MPs demanding that Abd el-Fattah is released.
The campaign claims that despite Foreign Minister David Lammy pledging his support for Abd el-Fattah’s release prior to the Labour government coming into power earlier this year, he has done little to secure his release.
“Alaa is a British citizen, and it is urgent that the UK government intervene now to stop this new violation of his human rights. The Foreign Secretary David Lammy has spoken up for Alaa in the past, but he must now turn those words into action,” Laila Soueif, Abd el-Fattah’s mother, wrote today via the Free Alaa campaign.
Soueif also announced that she will begin a hunger strike until Abd el-Fattah is free.
“My son had hope that the British government would secure his release. If they do not I fear he will spend his entire life in prison. So I am going on hunger strike for him, and I would rather die than allow Alaa to continue to be mistreated in this way.”
With international attention intensely focused on Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon, and Egypt’s Western allies content on overlooking el-Sisi’s human rights abuses to ensure security and stability within the region, it is hard to imagine that Abd el-Fattah’s case will be at the top of their agendas.
However, after 10 years of near-constant campaigning for his release, Abd el-Fattah’s family are not giving up and neither should we.
While world leaders met in Sharm el-Sheikh for COP27, British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist and writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah began a full hunger strike. He is imprisoned for “spreading false news” and has been denied access to diplomatic and legal counsel.
Sadly, Alaa’s case is far from unique. In fact, Human Rights First estimates that there are up to 65,000 political prisoners in detention in Egypt, though the real figure is unknown. Perplexingly, the Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi has alleged that Egypt does not hold any political prisoners at all.
News that el-Sisi orderedthe release of hundreds of prisoners in 2022 ahead of COP27 has been met with caution. “It might be tempting to think that positive change is on the horizon in Egypt following the releases of political prisoners.” says Index on Censorship’s Emma Sandvik Ling. “However, former political prisoners report continued intimidations and warnings of rearrest should they speak out against el-Sisi’s government. There is an important distinction to be made here between optics and genuine efforts to protect human rights.”
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who became Egyptian president after a coup in 2013, has shown increasingly authoritarian tendencies over the last decade. Among other things, el-Sisi has argued that freedom of expression “stops”when it offends Islam and urged opposition movements to “look and listen” before they speak.
Dissidents fighting for civic rights, democracy and transparency face intimidation, threats and arbitrary detentions. Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s case represents the heartbreaking reality for thousands of political prisoners in el-Sisi’s Egypt. El-Sisi is a tyrant in the true meaning of the word and his rule has a detrimental impact on freedom of expression.
Egyptian pro-democracy activist and blogger Abdelrahman ‘Moka’ Tarek has been released from prison. Moka works with the Al-Nedal Centre for Rights and Freedoms to defend freedom of expression and prisoner’s rights in Egypt. He won Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Award for Campaigning in 2021. In particular, the board of judges noted his commitment to protecting freedom of expression and his courage despite overwhelming adversity.
Moka has experienced persistent state harassment, arbitrary detentions, and abuse over the last decade. He was first detained in 2013 when he was involved in protests against military trials for civilians which were organised in front of the Egyptian Senate. He was released on probation in October 2018, but was forcibly disappeared a year later in September 2019. He was eventually placed in pre-trial detention and accused of “joining a terrorist group, spreading false news, and misusing social media”.
On two separate occasions, courts ordered the release of Moka. However, the release orders were blocked by the addition of new cases. Moka was prevented from communicating with his family and accessing legal counsel. He was subjected to poor detention conditions, torture, and abuse, including the use of electric shocks and prolonged solitary confinement. In 2021, Moka was transferred to the prison hospital after experiencing health complications due to a 53-day long hunger strike in protest of the poor conditions.
Reacting to his release, Ruth Smeeth, CEO of Index on Censorship said: “I am delighted that Moka has finally been released. We stand united with Moka and his detention was a travesty of justice. Today our thoughts are with him and his family who must be completely relieved.”
Tarek’s release comes after the reactivation of the Presidential Pardons Committee by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the subsequent appeal from eight Egyptian human rights groups for authorities to provide more transparency and clarity into review processes.
While this may indicate a shift towards more openness and transparency, Egyptian activists still face severe censorship and intimidation. Information received by Amnesty International suggests that those released will be monitored by Egypt’s National Security Agency, and that they may be threatened with re-arrest if they engage in activism.
A total of 986 inmates received a presidential pardon in May 2022 during the Eid al-Fitr celebrations, according to a statement released by the Egyptian Ministry of Interior. Egypt is estimated to have a prison population of more than 119,000, 31% of which are held on remand.
