State Information Service

[1] The SIS was founded in 1954 as the Information Authority (maslahat al-isti'lamat, Arabic: مصلحة الإستعلامات) by the Revolutionary Command Council in the eve of the republican era, two years after the Free Officers led by colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser toppled King Farouk and abolished the Monarchy.

In 1967 it was restructured into the State Information Service (SIS) and affiliated to the Ministry of Culture and National Guidance (wizarat al-thaqafa wal-irshad al-qawmi), during Tharwat Okasha's tenure, and given the mandate of supporting the ministry in "identifying local and international public opinion towards issues and events that concern the state, and in the field of guiding, educating and enlightening local public opinion.

[4] The SIS has had chairmen that served at high levels of government in the defense, information or foreign affairs ministries, as well as intelligence.

The current Chairman of SIS, Diaa Rashwan a journalist and a former head of the Press Syndicate, he was appointed to the post by president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in June 2017.

[5] Among the previous Chairmen of SIS was Safwat El-Sherif one of the leading and controversial figures in deposed president Hosni Mubarak's government.