Notícias

Pushed out of Egypt for COVID-19 reporting

COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW – 07/05/2020

Ruth Michaelson

THE WARNING that I would be expelled from Egypt began with a few simple words. “They just want to see your visa,” a British embassy official told me on March 18, passing on a message from Egyptian security officials at the country’s visa and immigration office. I knew what that meant: Other journalists had been called to the same authority to have their visas revoked. Later that day, the British official called me again as I sheltered in a hotel room, after a lawyer advised me to flee my apartment in case it was raided by police. The security services had spoken to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which had passed a second message to the British embassy. “They’re asking you to leave,” he said.