EGYPT  –    Egypt has blocked access to at least 21 news sites critical of the government, notably the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera, Huffington Post’s Arabic-language site HuffPost Arabi and the independent website Mada Masr.

The state-run news agency Mena announced late on Wednesday that 21 websites had been blocked because they were “spreading lies” and “supporting terrorism”. The full list of banned sites was not provided, but Mena added that legal action against the outlets was forthcoming. Al-Jazeera, which is partially owned by the Qatari royal family, has been frequently singled out as an enemy of the Egyptian state since the overthrow of former Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013.

Qatar previously backed Morsi’s leadership, prompting the arrest and detention of journalists from Al-Jazeera following his ouster. Mada Masr was not reportedly included on this list, but access to its site inside Egypt is currently blocked without use of a virtual private network, or VPN.(The guardian)[+]