Egyptian police raided the office of Masr al-Arabia news website late on Tuesday and arrested its editor-in-chief, the media outlet reported.
The raid came two days after the Supreme Council for Media Regulation, an official oversight body, told the website to pay a $2,849 fine for republishing a New York Times article on alleged irregularities during last week's presidential election.
Authorities say curbing fictitious news is necessary for national security.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi won a second term with 97 percent of the votes on a turnout of 41 percent, official results showed on Monday.
According to an account published on the website, security agents in civilian clothes entered the offices of Masr al-Arabia at 3:30 pm local time and ordered journalists to turn over their computers. Staff members refused to hand over their devices without logging out of their emails, the outlet said.
Adel Sabry, the website's editor-in-chief, was arrested and is being held at Dokki police station in greater Cairo, Masr al-Arabia's managing editor Mohamed Mounir told Reuters. The website said Sabry is being charged with operating a website without a local license.
At least 20 journalists were behind bars in Egypt as of December 1, 2017, according to The Committee to Protect Journalists with at least seven facing charges of spreading "false news."
