What you need to know about penalties of media violations

CAIRO – 21 November 2018: The Complaints Committee of the Supreme Council for Media Regulation headed by Jamal Shawki completed Nov. 18 preparing the executive regulations for sanctions on media violations.

“Media irregularities include rumors, disrespect for others, insult or slander, violating private data, and violence or hatred incitement,” Shawki said.

Irregularities also include violations of the rights of women, children and people with special needs approved by the Parliament.

Shawki added that the fines imposed by the regulations range from LE 50,000 to LE500,000 according to the violation and that the fine is doubled in case of repetition.

He said that the sanctions range from drawing the attention of the violator to temporary prevention of broadcasting or temporary blocking of the violating sites or pages in case of media crimes.

It is expected that the Information Council will discuss the final regulations within a few days before submitting the regulations to the Council of State for approval.

Last July, Egypt’s Parliament passed a law giving the state powers to block social media accounts and penalize journalists held publishing fake news.

Article 19 of the bill states that any newspaper, media outlet or website is prohibited from publishing or broadcasting false news and encouraging or inciting, violence, hatred, discrimination between citizens, calling for racism or intolerance and violation of the law. It also prohibits slander or insult to religions. The article also applies to personal blogs or social media accounts with more than 5,000 followers.

Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel Aal said that the Information Committee has committed itself to taking the opinions of the three media bodies, namely the Supreme Council for Media Regulation, the National Media Authority and the National Press Authority.

It also took the opinions of the Journalists Syndicate, Media Personnel Syndicate, the Media Industry Chamber, and the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, he added.