Egypt sues NYT, Guardian reporters for publishing misinformation about Covid-19
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Roshan Amiri
- . March 24, 2020
- . Update: March 24, 2020 3:11 pm
Egyptian authorities stripped Ruth Michaelson, journalist of The Guardian, a British newspaper, for accusing her of working in the country for publishing false information about the situation in the country with the new coronavirus. This was reported on Tuesday by the State Information Service (SIS). In addition, a warning was issued to the head of the Cairo bureau of The New York Times, Declan Walsh, who posted on Twitter similar data.
Cairo drew attention to an article in The Guardian dated March 15, which said that there could be significantly more cases of infection in Egypt than officially stated. The reporter relies in the article on the data of Canadian experts. “The article contains incorrect numbers and data on the number of infected people,” the SIS said. “The New York Times correspondent tweeted the same incorrect and exaggerated numbers, which led to confusion and disorientation in Egypt and around the world.” As the state information service pointed out, journalists when publishing materials “relied on one source of information in the person of an anonymous Canadian doctor, although the rules of the media require confirmation of information through several sources.”
“In connection with professional abuse that is not the first time, the State Information Service, in accordance with Egyptian law and the rules of work of accredited foreign journalists, has decided to revoke accreditation from the correspondent of The Guardian newspaper in Egypt,” the service said. “The New York Times’s American newspaper in Egypt issued a warning on the need to comply with journalistic ethics in the performance of their professional duties. Authorities called on The Guardian to publish an apology and refutation of the published information.
