Police raids on Egyptian journalists should alarm anyone who cares about press freedom

The latest arrests mark yet another dreadful milestone in Cairo’s crackdown on the fourth estate

Shady Zalat, an editor of Mada Masr, was arrested at his home in Cairo (AP)

There are few more worthy journalism projects than Mada Masr, and fewer more brave journalists in the world than those who work in its Cairo offices.

Launched in 2013, two years after the uprising that toppled Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak, the online newspaper sought to combine the zealousness unleashed by the revolution with the rigour of top-notch journalism. It eventually became the only credible and independent news outlet in Egypt.

For six years, as strongman Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has tightened the reins on politics and society, arresting or exiling dissidents, Mada Masr has regularly broken big stories about human-rights violations and corruption, in both Arabic and English. It has examined the Egyptian regime’s financial dealings as well as its human-rights failings.