Egypt authorities challenge Reuters on casualties in western dessert

24/10/2017 6:36

        Egyptian authorities have accused
        Reuters and the BBC of "inaccurate coverage" of clashes in the
        western desert between security forces and armed militants in
        which police officers and conscripts were killed on Friday.
        
        In a statement, Egypt's State Information Service (SIS) said
        Reuters had made "grave professional mistakes" by relying on
        unidentified security sources and not "resorting to official
        security authorities to get correct information".
        
        The Ministry of Interior in an initial statement on Friday
        did not give any casualty figure for Friday's clashes. On
        Saturday, a ministry statement said 16 police and conscripts
        were killed and another 13 wounded in a remote western desert
        area after they came under heavy fire from the armed group.
        
        However, three security sources told Reuters as many as 52
        police had been killed in gun battles, which security sources
        said involved militants firing rockets at a police convoy.
        
        "We take seriously our obligation to report the news fairly
        and accurately, and were careful here to report both the
        Interior Ministry's account of the situation as well as
        information we received independently from other sources," a
        Reuters spokesperson said.
        
        The SIS also criticised the use of the word militant in the
        English version of the story that Reuters published.
        
        "Reuters 'English' exchanged the term 'terrorists', which is
        only accurate and realistic description of those elements, with
        the term 'militants', a matter that may give a positive
        connotation to the reader," the statement said.