A Dutch journalist for BNR radio and the Parool has been arrested in Egypt, accused of spying and trying to ‘impose western culture on Egyptians’, website nu.nl said on Tuesday.

Rena Netjes was picked up on Monday evening while working on a report about youth unemployment and spend the night in a police cell. She was released after a court hearing on Tuesday afternoon.

Netjes told television current affairs show EenVandaag she had been talking to a coffee house owner about interviewing youngsters who were hanging around. The man asked to see her passport and then said he was reporting her to the police.

The charge sheet, she said, states she is a danger to public safety and that she has interviewed people without being in possession of a press card. The police also say text messages on her phone from contacts calling for the fall of president Mursi indicate that she is anti-government, Netjes told the broadcaster.