A Cairo misdemeanour courton Thursdaysentenced a TV host, a satellite channel owner and a news producer to six months in jail over broadcasting false news, a judicial source said.

The convicted include Magdy El-Galad, editor-in-chief of the privately-owned Al-Watan newspaper and TV host on satellite TV channel CBC Extra, station owner Mohamed El-Amin and a writer for the show, Wael Saad.

The case was brought by an official of the country's Central Auditing Agency, who accused the three staffers of the Lazem Nefham (We Must Know) talk show of publishing false reports and disclosing the agency's secrets over an episode involving reports about the squandering of public funds.

The sentences are appealable.

None of the convicted, who were also fined LE10,000 (approximately$1,300) each, have been arrested.

This is not the first time that El-Galad has been accused of publishing false news.

In mid-2013, he was tried over the same accusations, after his newspaper published a report in October 2012, claiming that the then-ruling Muslim Brotherhood group had drawn up a hit list of 100 Egyptian figures.

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/134408.aspx