Democratic senator blames Egypt press crackdown on US military aid decision
Chris Murphy said waiving a human rights condition on aid paved the way for arrests of journalists.
A top Democratic senator has blamed a crackdown on independent journalism in Egypt on a decision by the Trump administration to waive human rights conditions on US military funding to the country.
Chris Murphy, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused the US government of "abandoning" the Egyptian people after it lifted restrictions relating to more than $300m of defence assistance.
Over the last month a series of arrests has taken place of journalists at two of the few remaining independent news outlets in Egypt, where newspapers and TV stations are closely controlled by the authorities.
Asked by the BBC about the move in light of this month's arrests of journalists, the State Department said the waiver was "due to Egypt's importance to US national security interests, the concrete security cooperation Egypt provides to the United States, and the need to maintain that cooperation to address regional security challenges".