By Lydia KhalilSince 2018, large anti-government protests — what some term the Arab Spring 2.0 — have reverberated across the Middle East. As a result, the authorities in these countries have turned to the example of the region’s more authoritarian governments, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. For these countries’ leaders, the permissive media and information environment was responsible for the protests that rocked the Arab world in 2011. Security officials arrested three journalists, claiming that Mada Masr had spread false information and had links to the Muslim Brotherhood (which the government considers a terrorist organization). In truth, the government conducted the raid to discredit Mada Masr after it published an unflattering article about al-Sisi’s son, Mahmoud.

Source: Taipei Times February 19, 2020 15:56 UTC