The Turkish Anadolu Agency has cited restricted press freedom and accreditation difficulties behind the pullout of the Arabic news service from Egypt's capital in a statement by the news outlet on Thursday.
“Stories about the closure of the central office of Anadolu Agency's Middle East-Africa Regional Directorate in Cairo are not true,” Anadolu Agency Directorate General said.
“Anadolu Agency has reduced staff numbers at its office in Cairo due to problems like the recent limitation of independent journalism opportunities in Egypt and the failure of the Egyptian Information Ministry to renew the Agency’s accreditation. Our correspondents have not been granted accreditation at official press meetings and there are security concerns for our staff as well,” the statement said.
“However, our expectation from Egyptian authorities for accreditation continues and in the mean time our office in Cairo will continue its operations. In addition, the central office of the Agency’s Arabic News Service has been moved to Istanbul and some of the personnel from the Cairo office continue their work in Istanbul and Ankara,” the statement added.
Egypt and Turkey suffered a fallout in relations after the military ouster of the Egyptian president, Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsy, who was a staunch ally of Turkey's conservative Islamist-leaning president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Meanwhile, Egyptian-Qatari relations also suffered during the turmoil, especially when the new military-backed regime moved to close the Qatari news channel Al Jazeera, accusing it of biased, pro-Brotherhood coverage. Several Al Jazeera English reporters were later arrested when they were found reporting illegally from the Mariott Hotel in an international crisis that dragged on for over a year.
Political analysts wondered if the failure to receive accreditation Anadolu Agency signaled a complete shutdown, such as was the case with Al Jazeera.
