Category Archives: Egypt

New Media Rights in Egyptian Constitution

Posted on December 17, 2013 by | Leave a comment

The new Egyptian Constitution was made official by then-president Mohamed Morsi on December 26, 2012.

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Articles 47 and 48 of the Constitution both address media freedom and freedom of expression in Egypt:

Article 47
Citizens have the right to access information, data, statistics, and documents, and to disclose and circulate them. The state guarantees this right. The right is constrained by the inviolability of private life, the rights of others, and exigencies of national security.

The law specifies the principles by which public documents are accessed and archived. It determines how information is acquired and complaints against information denials are lodged. It also specifies how accountability for such denials is established.

Article 48
The freedom of journalism, the press, the publishing industry, broadcasting, and other media is guaranteed. Their free and independent message serves society, expressing, forming, and directing public opinion. All this happens within the framework of the essential elements of state and society, the preservation of rights, freedoms, and societal duties, respect for the sanctity of citizens’ private lives, and the requirements of national security. It is forbidden to censor, terminate, or sequester the media without a court ruling. It is illegal to censor material that the media are putting out. An exception is limited censorship in times of war or public mobilization.

Despite these “guarantees,” there has been little done to protect the rights of journalists in these countries. As has been illustrated in other posts on this blog, journalists in Egypt are in constant fear of being detained or killed, despite the Egyptian Constitution promising them safety and freedom to practice their craft.

Of course, one could argue that restricting these rights is a necessity with the constant turmoil that is going on in the country. The Egyptian government may view the restriction of what the media can and cannot put out as a necessary evil to keep the country safe.

What do you think? Should the government restrict the rights of the media during such a hectic/dangerous time in Egypt, or should it stay true to the Constitution and let the media report on whatever they want?

Sources: http://niviensaleh.info/constitution-egypt-2012-translation/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Egypt

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Nine Egyptian Journalists Killed in Last Two Years

Posted on December 17, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Since February 4, 2011, nine journalists from various outlets around Egypt have been killed. All of the journalists had one thing in common: they were all reporters who covered politics in the country.

All but one of the journalists who were killed were of Middle Eastern decent, and the one who wasn’t was an English reporter who was in Egypt covering protests by Egyptian citizens during the tenure of president Mohamed Morsi.

In fact, three journalists were killed covering the protests of Morsi on August 14, 2013: Mick Dean of Sky News, Ahmed Abdel Gawad of Al-Akhbar and Misr25, and Mosaab al-Shami of Rassd News Network.

The other journalists who have been killed during the last 2+ years of protest are as followed (the date of their deaths are in parentheses): Ahmad Mohamed Mahmoud of Al-Ta’awun (Feb. 4, 2011), Wael Mikhael of Al-Tareeq (Oct. 9, 2011), Al-Hosseiny Abou Deif of El-Fagr (Dec. 12, 2012), Salah al-Din Hassan of Shaab Masr (June 29, 2013), Ahmed Assem el-Senousy of Freedon and Justice (July 8, 2013), and Tamer Abdel Raouf of Al-Ahram (Aug 19, 2013).

Unfortunately, the lives of journalists being in constant danger in Egypt is nothing new. Due to the murder of journalists — along with the imprisonment and detainment of others — Egypt has been listed as one of the five most dangerous places to practice journalism in the world.

Along with the murder of multiple journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists speculates that at least 40 journalists have been arrested or detained since the overthrow of former president Hosni Mubarak.

Sources: http://cpj.org/killed/mideast/egypt/ http://www.aljazeera.com/video/europe/2013/09/201391919134191802.html http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/09/17/egypt-a-dangerous-place-for-journalists/

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Egyptian Journalists Still Have Restricted Rights

Posted on December 16, 2013 by | Leave a comment

When president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a military coup after the Egyptian Revolution in 2011, it was viewed as a new era for Egypt, one where the country overthrew a dictator, became more “free,” and reporters could report on issues in the country without the fear of being repressed by the government.

However, the country has faced a ton of turmoil since the revolution. Since Mubarak was ousted, Egypt went from being under military rule, to president Mohammed Morsi, to current de facto president, Adly Mansour. Because of this, there hasn’t been much protection of members of the media due to what some people call “repressive tactics.”

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According to the Committee to Protect Journalists a non-profit group based out of New York, things in Egypt stayed largely the same, even after Mubarak was ousted as president. Under Morsi, the CPJ says that Egyptian journalists faced “legal and physical intimidation” and “wide censorship,” which is something he said wouldn’t happen while he was in control.

One thing that Morsi was notorious for during his tenure as Egypt’s president was going out of his way to censor any and all opposition to his regime. In the short time that he was in control of Egypt, the CPJ estimated that Morsi filed hundreds of defamation cases against opposing voices and that his administration assaulted at least 80 journalists.

 

Sources: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/media/2013/08/14/-Repressive-tactics-still-threaten-Egypt-press-freedom-says-watchdog.html http://www.cpj.org/

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Social Media’s Impact During Arab Spring In Egypt

Posted on December 15, 2013 by | Leave a comment

During the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, social media was viewed as the thing that had the strongest impact in uniting the Egyptian people towards the common goal of overthrowing President Hosni Mubarak.

While it is widely believed that the protests wouldn’t occur unless they were organized on social media on sites like Facebook and Twitter, some people reject that notion and believe that social media was just a tool used by Egyptian citizens, who were far more important to the success of the Egyptian Revolution.

An article titled “Social media use evolving in Egypt” from Deutsche Welle looks at social media’s impact during the Revolution and how it has been used since, both by the people and by the country’s politicians.

After the Egyptian Revolution — and the entire Arab Spring, in general — social media was still used by citizens as a way to rally and show solidarity. However, while social media was viewed as something dangerous during the Egyptian Revolution — in fact, Mubarak shut down the Internet and banned Facebook and Twitter — newly implemented Egyptian politicians began embracing it, too, including Muhammad Morsi, who became President after Mubarak was ousted.

Despite this, experts argue that social media wasn’t nearly as important as previously believed. From http://www.dw.de/social-media-use-evolving-in-egypt/a-16930251

Eira Martens, a research associate with the DW Academy, carried out an empirical study on the role of social media during Egypt’s Arab Spring in 2011. She said calling it a “Facebook revolution” would be an exaggeration.

Her research showed that in addition to helping organize protests, social media – in particular shared photos and videos – allowed participants to form a collective identity. This increased a sense of solidarity and helped lower a “fear threshold” that may otherwise have prevented people from taking to the streets.

Another of Marten’s findings was that social media helped to compress the time frame of the uprising. “In the Egyptian context, Facebook in particular helped accelerate the protests,” Martens said of her research results. “The majority of the social media activists I interviewed believe that it would have taken a few more years to overthrow Mubarak’s government,” she added.

What do you think? Was social media the most important catalyst for change during the Egyptian Revolution, or was it simply a part of a much larger thing?

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Propaganda in Egypt

Posted on December 11, 2013 by | Leave a comment

media-freedom

The current situation in Egypt is dangerous and unstable and it is affecting everything from the safety of the citizens to the stability of their media system. The Egyptian constitution states that freedom of the media is guaranteed, but many citizens know that that is not the case. There are certain topics that people know not to cover, therefore the Egyptian media system is not free and it never has been. According to the article, Media International: “Egypt’s media is a propaganda machine”, the countries political situation is starting to affect the work of journalists. Recently, people have been noticing that the current media in Egypt is propaganda. Many journalists end up writing for powerful higher ups and end up getting manipulated into writing something that they wouldn’t have written otherwise. This manipulation could be looked at as exploitation of journalists to a certain extent. A lot of journalists report in this manner to avoid getting in trouble or sticking out. Many journalists fear that they could get in trouble for what they are writing so they end up self-censoring which is not ideal for a country with freedom of the media system. It is sad that these talented journalists cannot report freely and that they are afraid of what will be the outcome if someone doesn’t like what they write. This type of manipulation by power holders is definitely a way for the government to keep a strong hold on the citizens. For a country that claims to have free media system this example right here proves that they are not. By manipulating journalists, they can get out the exact message they want to portray to the citizens. Whether it’s keeping information from the citizens to keep them safe or happy with the government, this is definitely a form of propaganda.

Source:

http://www.dw.de/media-international-egypts-media-is-a-propaganda-machine/a-17288479

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Military Involvement in Egyptian Media

Posted on December 2, 2013 by | 2 comments

One of the biggest branches of media in Egypt is state-owned media, which, like most things that are “state-owned” look to push a certain agenda, and in this instance, the state’s impact on what the media chooses to report is shown.

During the Arab Spring, Egypt went through a major revolution that began in January of 2011 and lasted approximately three weeks. Essentially, Egyptian citizens rallied against Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and his administration, which eventually led to Mubarak leaving his office in February of 2011 and being replaced by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, who eventually relinquished the power to Mohamed Morsi in June of 2012.

During this time, one of the major forces that was able to rise up and make an impact on the Egyptian people was the country’s military, the aforementioned Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The  Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces at the time was Mohamed Hussein Tantawi (seen below), and it was widely believed that he had presidential aspirations, as he was the de facto leader of Egypt when the SCAF took over.

510px-Field_Marshal_Mohamed_Hussein_Tantawi_2002

While the people generally had an unfavorable view of the Tantawi and the military after a demonstration at the Maspero television building in Cairo, according to Egypt Independent, the state-run media instead asserted that the military was not the enemy of the people, but rather that the military was the savior of Egypt.

One reporter discussed the demonstrations, and said that “the state newspapers are of vital importance to those in power because their influence and huge resources, human or otherwise, at their disposal.” He also claimed that ““The ties of allegiance are still strong, and the state media still takes its orders from the military and the old Mubarak institutions like the State Security apparatus under its new name of the National Security Agency,” and that ” the direction is always in favor of those in power, and this is the case even without direct orders from above; this is their natural inclination.”

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Field_Marshal_Mohamed_Hussein_Tantawi_2002.jpg (Image)

http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/military-and-state-owned-media-one-hand

 

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