Proposed amendments to the Criminal Procedures Act are unconstitutional and dangerous that could further stifle the exercise of freedoms, Ashraf El Barbary says in a column penned for Al Shorouk. El Barbary points specifically to a proposed amendment that would impose a media ban on all court hearings without the permission of the presiding judge as a measure that would only serve to tighten the noose around freedom and access to information in Egypt. What is most dangerous, he says, is the fact that the amendment will likely pass the House of Representatives with minimal resistance, since the body has happily rubber stamped many other equally repressive and unconstitutional measures such as the NGOs Law and the Tiran and Sanafir handover agreement.

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