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Culture Minister Helmy al-Namnam attended a press conference Thursday held in solidarity with novelist Ahmed Naji, who was sentenced to two years in prison this week on charges of harming public morality.

Namnam said that laws conflicting with constitutional guarantees for the freedom of expression need to be confronted, explaining that the case sets a precedent extending far beyond Naji's novel. Even if a literary work is challenging to social norms, he added, this is not a criminal offense justifying imprisonment.It wasn’t Naji that harmed public morality, Namnam argued, but whoever filed the lawsuit against him.

Thursday's conference was held at the Journalists Syndicate and brought together nine rights organizations as well as several public figures.Khaled al-Balshy, a Journalists Syndicate board member, jokingly said the conference should be called “Don’t listen to anyone but me,” referring to a speech given by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday.

The Egyptian press syndicate condemned on Sunday "halting the printing of newspapers and intervening in their contents." The syndicate voiced concern over the "emergence of strong indicators on return of newspaper censorship." The contents of newspapers have been omitted or amended by "unknown oversight bodies", the syndicate's freedom committee said in a statement posted on its website, citing the chief editors of newspapers. 

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