Egypt’s State Information Service has called on Egyptian officials and “the elite” to boycott the BBC in response to a program – Crushing Dissent in Egypt – which it described as containing “numerous factual misrepresentations and false claims,” The Financial Times reports:
The BBC has said it was aware of the allegations made by the Egyptian authorities but insisted it stood by “the integrity of our reporting teams”. Crushing Dissent in Egypt, the BBC report, features an interview with a mother searching for her daughter, Zubaida, who she alleges had disappeared since April after being abducted by the security services. She said her daughter had spent two previous stints in prison after the two of them were picked up near a demonstration, adding 
that Zubaida was tortured in detention.
Egypt’s upcoming presidential election may not remove the incumbent President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, but many problems lie ahead if he wins, notes Carnegie analyst Michele Dunne. He has been unable to deliver the prosperity and security he promised, and neither seems to be on the horizon, notes Dunne, a board member of the National Endowment for Democracy, the Washington-based democracy assistance group.
