section_path: Government/Law/Freedom of the press
section_name: Freedom of the press
paragraph_text: Freedom of the press
  
  Reporters Without Borders ranked Egypt in their 2017 World Press Freedom Index at No. 160 out of 180 nations. At least 18 journalists were imprisoned in Egypt, as of August 2015. A new anti-terror law was enacted in August 2015 that threatens members of the media with fines ranging from about US$25,000 to $60,000 for the distribution of wrong information on acts of terror inside the country "that differ from official declarations of the Egyptian Department of Defense".
  
  Some critics of the government have been arrested for allegedly spreading false information about the COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt.