An opposition Egyptian presidential candidate was targeted with spyware a number of times in recent months, with Egyptian authorities likely behind the hacking attempts, security researchers say.

Aspiring Egyptian presidential candidate Ahmed Tantawy’s phone was hacked by European commercial spyware several times after he announced his interest in running for the Egyptian presidency, a report by The Citizen Lab has found.

An Egyptian journalist who was detained over the weekend was released late on Sunday, his employer announced in a tweet.

The relationship between the arts and politics in Egypt is as old as the republic. Over the decades, Egyptian artists, willingly or begrudgingly, have been drawn towards circles of power. Their images have been moulded, manipulated, and in cases of dissent, distorted by the nation’s successive regimes.

Al Jazeera Media Network has condemned a decision by an Egyptian court to reinstitute several of the network’s journalists and TV presenters on its latest “terrorism” list.

It was not surprising to followers and observers of the situation that the Egyptian regime had obtained an open-source intelligence platform from an Israeli company, which would enhance its ability to monitor websites and means of communication and pursue its opponents.

There is anticipation in the press and human rights community in Egypt regarding the information circulation law, its clauses that are up for discussion and its potential approval by the Egyptian Parliament over the next few months.

In a statement released on Monday, Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS) slammed a report published by The Economist last week in regard to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.

Employees at the BBC office in Cairo went on strike Wednesday over the British public broadcaster’s insistence on paying staff in local currency, which has lost much of its value over the past year.

Egyptian composer and producer Amr Mostafa has found himself at the centre of an intense debate after unveiling a promotional clip on social media featuring a sample of his composition, accompanied by the AI-generated voice of the late Egyptian icon Umm Kulthum.