The Stream

Prominent Egyptian TV personality joins hunger strike movement

Television presenter Reem Maged will be on a two-day hunger strike in solidarity with detainees held under the country’s protest law.

Egyptian journalist and television presenter Reem Maged announced on Friday that she will abstain from food for 48-hour in solidarity with prisoners who are also on hunger strike, objecting to the protest law. More than 80 Egyptian detainees are estimated to be on a hunger strike which began in early September, most of whom jailed for violating the law. Maged joins the solidarity movement of more than 200 Egyptians, including families of the detainees, activists and journalists, who won’t be eating in support of the prisoners. The campaign calls for the revocation of the law, the release of political prisoners, and the nullification of all sentences handed under this law.  

Maged gained enormous popularity during the January 25 anti-Mubarak uprising, and later stopped presenting her show on a private broadcast channel, explaining the channel’s “priorities were national security and unity while Maged’s priority was freedom”.