Egypt's Morsi officially withdraws all lawsuits against media

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has officially withdrawn all lawsuits filed by the presidency against the media, state-run news agency MENA reported Saturday. Morsi sent a letter on Saturday to Prosecutor-General Talaat Ibrahim Abdullah to drop the lawsuits filed by the presidency against six independent and partisan newspapers with their editors- in-chief and some of their journalists over insulting the president, misleading the public and other charges. Lawsuits against two TV channels with their owners and some presenters and an official at the press syndicate were also withdrawn. On April 10, Morsi ordered to withdraw all the lawsuits filed by the presidency against journalists. "The decision came out of respect for freedom of expression," his spokesman Ehab Fahmi said. According to the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, the prosecution has received over 600 legal complaints against journalists and media professionals since Morsi came to power in late June 2012.