MFA rejects EU criticism over jailing journalists: The Foreign Affairs Ministry’s spokesperson said the EU External Action Service’s spokesperson, Catherine Ray, should “look closely at reports made by the delegation of the EU on the large number of newspapers that are published on a daily basis in Egypt,” Ahram Online reported. The ministry is criticizing comments Ray made expressing worry over the indictment of the Press Syndicate head and undersecretary. “The EU should make efforts to support the Egyptian government in order to provide better services to Egyptian citizens,” the Ministry adds.

…NPR’s Leila Fadel covered the case for Morning Edition with comments from syndicate undersecretary Khaled Elbalshy saying, “It’s a crazy time. Anything could happen. In my opinion, we are facing a tyrannical regime, an old form of dictatorship… They want to silence the union, by breaking into it, by besieging it and now by putting us on trial for the first time in history.”