EGYPT / An ONTV journalist thrown out of the country

Late in the afternoon of June 27^th Liliane Daoud, a Lebanese-British journalist and presenter on the Egyptian private channel ONTV, was given just a few hours to leave Egypt.

According to her lawyer the police went to her home and took her straight to the airport, without giving her time to pack or say goodbye to her daughter. He added that her British passport and phone were confiscated. That same evening she left Cairo for Beirut on an EgyptAir flight.

According to police she was evicted because her residence permit and journalist’s contract had both expired.

A former reporter for the BBC, Liliane Daoud has presented ONTV’s political show “As sura al kamila” (The whole image) since 2011, regularly inviting members of the opposition to the government of Abdel Fattah al-Sissi.

On her Facebook page, the journalist says she will use “all legal and diplomatic means to get back to Cairo as soon as possible, be with [her] daughter and continue the life she has built there with her family and friends.”

This is not the first time ONTV journalists have been targeted by the authorities. Reem Maged was summoned for questioning by the army in May 2011. The two programmes she presented on ONTV, “Baladna bel Masry” and “Gamea Mo’anath Salem” were axed in 2013 and 2015 respectively, in unclear circumstances. ONTV, which on its website describes itself as “the only politically independent channel on Egyptian television”, is also known for the first season of Bassem Youssef’s satirical programme “Al Bernameg”.

Sources: BBC, La Croix, L’Orient-le Jour, Le Monde Afrique, Mada Masr