🇪🇬 Al-Masry Al-Youm

About Al-Masry Al-Youm

Al-Masry Al-Youm is owned by Al Masry Establishment for Press, Printing and Publishing, a private Egyptian media organization founded by businessman Salah Diab in 2002. Its board has included prominent Egyptian businessmen such as Naguib Sawiris, who reportedly sold his shares to Salah Diab in 2017.

While Al-Masry Al-Youm was founded as an independent, liberal newspaper aiming for objective news coverage, its editorial independence is severely compromised by Egypt's 'not-free' press environment. Reporters Without Borders ranked Egypt 166th out of 180 countries in press freedom in 2020 and 2021, and Freedom House consistently rates Egypt as 'Not Free'. The outlet has faced accusations of self-censorship, notably when its English-language supplement, Egypt Independent, was censored for an article critical of the military, leading to its closure. In 2018, the newspaper's editor-in-chief was sacked and the paper fined by the Supreme Council for Media Regulations over its coverage of the presidential election, which was deemed critical of the state. Additionally, a correspondent for Al-Masry Al-Youm was detained in 2020 on charges of joining a 'terrorist group' and spreading 'fake news,' accusations frequently used by Egyptian authorities to silence critics. These incidents indicate si