The White House said on Tuesday that it is deeply concerned about a recent crackdown by the Egyptian government on journalists and academics.
"These figures, regardless of affiliation, should be protected and permitted to do their jobs freely in Egypt," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters at a briefing.
"We have strongly urged the government to drop these charges and release those journalists and academics who have been detained," he said.
Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat has referred 20 defendants, including an Australian, a Briton and a Dutch national, to the Cairo Criminal Court on charges of establishing a media network in a hotel to broadcast “false news” via the Al Jazeera channel in a case known as the “Marriott Cell.”
Investigations revealed that the defendants stayed in a hotel suite and equipped it with transmission units to compile and broadcast what prosecutors have called “false information” about a “civil war” in Egypt.
