Egyptian authorities have charged journalist Mohamed Ashraf with joining a terrorist group and spreading false news, days after security forces arrested all six staff of the independent fact-checking outlet Matsadaash; he was ordered held for 15 days, while the whereabouts of his five colleagues remain unknown, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. Officials accuse the outlet of operating without a licence and working for the banned Muslim Brotherhood (an Islamist movement Egypt designated a terrorist group in 2013), which co-founder Abdelrahman Mansour denies. More than 80 rights groups have condemned the arrests, which came just over a week after Washington waived human rights conditions on $320m in military aid to Egypt, and which highlight tight press restrictions in a country ranked 169th of 180 on the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.