Egyptian authorities have detained all six journalists working for independent fact-checking platform Matsada2sh, prompting condemnation from rights groups and press freedom advocates, Middle East Eye reported.

Security forces raided the homes of Mohamed Ashraf Abu Emeira, Abdallah Qadry, Islam Barakat, Omar Helal, Mohamed Mahmoud and Mohamed Adel on September 28 and 29, according to the report. The six journalists make up the platform’s entire newsroom.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) described the arrests as the first case in Egypt in which an entire newsroom has been detained and said the authorities had not disclosed the journalists’ whereabouts.

The arrests have brought the number of journalists detained in Egypt to 24, according to RSF.

Rights groups said security forces confiscated the journalists’ phones and laptops, as well as devices belonging to family members. The officers reportedly did not produce arrest warrants or disclose where the journalists would be taken.

Egypt’s Interior Ministry later confirmed the arrests, accusing the journalists of operating an unlicensed platform “run from abroad” and spreading “fake news”. It also alleged that the journalists were affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been outlawed by the Egyptian government since 2014.

Matsada2sh, Arabic for “Don’t believe,” was founded in 2018 as a fact-checking platform focused on correcting misleading or inaccurate information from government sources, opposition media and other outlets.

One of its editors was previously detained in 2023 over similar allegations but was released after two days.

More than 80 rights organisations and independent media outlets have called for the journalists’ immediate release, describing the arrests as an escalation against independent media and freedom of expression.

“Independent journalism is critical in any free society,” the organisations said, adding that the crackdown contradicted Egypt’s stated commitments to dialogue, transparency and anti-corruption.

Abdelrahman Mansour, a co-founder of Matsada2sh who is based outside Egypt, told The Associated Press that the journalists’ families still do not know where they are being held.

He said the journalists understood the risks associated with their work but that it was unacceptable for authorities to make what he described as false accusations and forcibly disappear journalists over their work.