Egypt’s President, Mohamed Morsi, has passed a law banning the pre-trial detention of those accused of media crimes, in his first use of legislative powers seized from the country’s military.

The move has led to the freeing of one of Morsi’s harshest critics, newspaper editor Islam Afifi, who was arrested mere hours before the declaration. Afifi faced charges of various charges including “insulting the President”, a crime under Egyptian law.

Commenting on the arrest of Afifi, US State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland said,

"We did express concerns quite strongly that one of the cornerstones of a vibrant democracy is a free press and respect for freedom of expression and called on Egypt to ensure that it is protecting those freedoms moving forward."

“The Egyptian Government was very much aware and has been aware that we made some comments here about media freedom and took note of those”.

Afifi himself stated on his release,

“It’s clear that what happened to me is a message to all people of opinion to muzzle their mouths and not to speak freely,”

“Prison shouldn’t be the fate of those who express their opinions.”

The move has been cautiously welcomed by Egyptian activists, with Gamal Eid, a human rights lawyer commenting,

 “Jail sentences for publishing crimes haven’t been abolished,”

“What he did was deal with the detail and not the principle — the branch and not the root”.