Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic steps his Department is taking to help encourage freedom of the press in Egypt.

Promoting media freedom is a priority for the UK in Egypt. We regularly raise concerns relating to restrictions on media freedom with the Egyptian authorities, both in private and public, including at Ministerial level. On 12 March the UK participated alongside 30 other countries in making a joint statement on Egypt at the UN Human Rights Council. The statement called on the Egyptian authorities to end the practice of blocking independent media websites and to release all journalists arrested in the course of practicing their profession. We regularly raise the cases of detained journalists with the Egyptian authorities.