Adjournment of the Trial of Nine Al-Bawaba News Journalists and Two Syndicate Board Members to 22 March

The Qasr El-Nil Misdemeanor Court, at its session held on Sunday, 22 February 2026, in the presence of counsel for the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR), ordered the adjournment of Case No. 1084 of 2026. The case concerns nine journalists from Al-Bawaba News, in addition to Ms. Iman Afouf and Mr. Mahmoud Kamel, members of the Board of the Journalists’ Syndicate. The matter was postponed to the hearing scheduled for 22 March to enable both the defense and the civil claimant to examine and review the case file.

During the hearing, the legal representative of the newspaper’s management submitted a civil claim for provisional compensation in the amount of EGP 100,001, alleging that the defendants committed the offense of defamation against the Chairman of the Board during a protest organized by a number of journalists demanding their lawful entitlement to the application of the statutory minimum wage to their salaries.

On 5 January 2026, the Central Cairo Prosecution Office summoned the journalists and the two Syndicate board members for questioning in connection with a complaint filed by the newspaper’s owner. The journalists maintained that there is no evidentiary basis to substantiate the alleged offense of defamation. The protest in question was attended by several journalists and the two board members, who chanted slogans expressing solidarity and articulating their demand for implementation of the minimum wage, including: “A minimum wage… a minimum standard of living,” and “The minimum wage is mandated by law.”

The dispute dates back to the final quarter of 2025, when the management of Al-Bawaba News allegedly undertook retaliatory and arbitrary measures in response to the journalists’ demands. Approximately 70 journalists initiated a sit-in at the newspaper’s headquarters on Mossadak Street, which continued for 56 days. During the sit-in, essential services were reportedly cut off. The sit-in was forcibly dispersed on 5 January 2026, compelling the journalists to relocate their protest to the premises of the Journalists’ Syndicate.

Concurrently, the management allegedly withheld the payment of salaries beginning in November 2025 and filed police reports accusing several journalists of “participating in an unauthorized demonstration,” including Syndicate Board Members Ms. Afouf and Mr. Kamel, in connection with the Board’s public solidarity with the journalists’ demands.

In parallel proceedings, the Dokki Labor Office referred Complaint No. 275, submitted by employees, to trial after determining that the newspaper’s management had violated National Wages Council Resolution No. 15 of 2025, which establishes the statutory minimum wage, in contravention of Article 104 of Law No. 14 of 2025, by failing to apply the minimum wage to its employees. The North Giza Misdemeanor Court (Labor Division) has scheduled 23 February 2026 for the trial of the legal representative of Al-Bawaba News in that matter.

Lawyers representing ECESR met with a group of affected journalists to assess available legal remedies following the submission of collective formal complaints to the Labor Office documenting alleged administrative arbitrariness, prevention from performing work, subsequent arbitrary dismissal, and the withholding of wages, in violation of the Labor Law and applicable constitutional guarantees. ECESR is undertaking their legal representation and pursuing all necessary judicial and administrative measures to safeguard their financial and employment rights vis-à-vis the management of the institution.

In this context, ECESR’s counsel emphasized that the charges brought against the journalists constitute mere allegations advanced by the newspaper’s management in an attempt to circumvent the employees’ legitimate demands for implementation of the statutory minimum wage and to evade its corresponding legal obligations.

Counsel further stated that the defense will challenge and refute these allegations before the competent court based on the factual record and the investigation file. He also noted that the Public Prosecution had previously determined that no criminal suspicion existed with respect to the alleged offense of participating in an unauthorized protest and accordingly ordered that no criminal proceedings be instituted on that charge, on the grounds that the gathering took place within the premises of a professional syndicate rather than in a public space, thereby falling within the scope of lawful and peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression.