On Wednesday, January 27th Al-Jazeera announced it was taking Egypt to an arbitration tribunal connected to the World Bank. Al-Jazeera accuses Egypt of “confiscating” its investments and causing “a loss of at least $150 million”.
The request for arbitration “comes after a sustained campaign [by the Egyptian government] against Al Jazeera’s journalists and commercial activities.” The Qatari channel is therefore launching a legal action before the Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
International arbitration is traditionally used to settle disputes between companies and States.
Al Jazeera’s spokesman said “we hope the arbitration we have initiated against Egypt will allow an impartial international tribunal to pass judgement on the 
series of politically motivated prosecutions and false accusations which Egypt has imposed on several of our journalists.”
In 2013, three Al Jazeera journalists were arrested in Egypt and then sentenced to three years in prison for “spreading false information in support of the Muslim Brotherhood”. They were released in 2015. The Egyptian government considers Al-Jazeera to be the Muslim Brotherhood’s spokesman (linked to former President Morsi).
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Sources : www.lorientlejour.com, www.elwatan.com, Sattelifax
