CPJ, partners condemn arrest of exiled Egyptian podcast host Seif al-Islam Eid’s father

In a joint statement, the Committee to Protect Journalists and 18 human rights and press freedom organizations called on Egyptian authorities to immediately release the father of exiled Egyptian podcast host Seif al-Islam Eid, who was arrested on October 22, 2025, and to cease targeting the family members of exiled journalists and human rights defenders.

The statement noted that Eid hosts Anbar Kollo Yesma (“Everyone in the Cell Must Hear”), the first Egyptian podcast to document life inside the country’s prisons through testimonies from former detainees since 2013. He also contributes to several independent media outlets. Eid believes his father’s arrest was retaliation for a recent podcast episode featuring a former political prisoner who detailed his experience of torture inside Egypt’s most secretive detention facility, Al-Azouly Prison.

The statement highlighted that the arrest of Eid’s father is part of the Egyptian authorities’ consistent pattern of using proxy punishment against family members of exiled journalists as part of broader transnational repression tactics aimed at silencing Egyptian journalists abroad.

Read the full statement in English and Arabic.