Egyptian Journalists Still Have Restricted Rights

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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