Egypt's heavily censored media continues to take on the regime

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/09/arabic-press-freedom-censorship

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Since the Arab uprisings that rippled out from the unlikely epicentre of Tunisia, the region's hopes for freedom and dignity have never been higher, at least since the end of colonial rule.

Against this backdrop, Reporters Without Borders' latest Press Freedom Index (PFI) makes for a depressing and demoralising reality check – at least at first sight.

"The Arab world was the motor of history in 2011 but the uprisings have had contrasting political outcomes so far," said the accompanying report. "Most of the region's countries have fallen in the index because of the measures taken in a bid to impose a news blackout on a crackdown."

The highest-ranking Arab country is Lebanon (93), just behind regional leader Israel (92). This means that, given all the tied positions, about 100 countries have, according to the PFI, freer media.

On a relatively successful note, Tunisia, which managed a fairly smooth transition to greater democracy, has risen 30 positions from 164th to 134th. In contrast, my native Egypt – which captivated the world with its "Tahrir" spirit – has plummeted 39 positions to number 166, sandwiched between Laos and Cuba.

Reporters Without Borders puts this down to "attempts by Hosni Mubarak's government and then the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces [Scaf] to rein in the revolution's successive phases". These tactics included the arrests and convictions of Egyptian journalists and bloggers, not to mention the harassment of foreign journalists.

This relegation can be justified. "Abuses against the freedom of the press have increased significantly," said Wael Eskandar, a young Egyptian journalist based in Cairo who has been closely following the revolution. "In every paper, there is a military censor … reporters and media personnel are targeted during their coverage of important events on the streets."

Eskandar cites as an example how talkshow host Reem Maged and her guest, the activist and journalist Hossam el-Hamalawy, were summoned by Scaf due to accusations that the military, which has tried to portray itself as the protector of the revolution, had attacked protesters.

That said, Eskandar feels his profession has become "more meaningful". "Politics is now at the forefront of people's thoughts and the opposition is real," he says. He also admits to feeling freer, despite the obvious dangers of harassment and even prosecution by a military court. "At times like these, it's worth the risk," he says.

For all its strengths, the PFI is imperfect and incomplete because it is based on the subjective scoring assigned by various observers, which means that countries with a more critical culture could score more poorly than countries which are less critical.

It also does not take into account qualitative criteria, such as the actual content, as well as the plurality, accuracy and scope of the reporting and commentary in the media. Reporters Without Borders admits as much. "The index should in no way be taken as an indication of the quality of the media in the countries concerned," it notes in its methodology.

The index can therefore provide a misleading impression about the nature of the media in a given country. For example, you could easily assume that Saudi Arabia (158th) enjoys greater media freedom than Egypt because it is eight positions higher in the index.

But this couldn't be further from the truth. Dynamic segments of the Egyptian media faced down Mubarak's state security apparatus and then Scaf's military crackdowns. But most of their Saudi colleagues have failed to rock the boat in the kingdom's stagnant and closely controlled media.

Moreover, just because a regime tries to curb journalists' freedom, that does not mean it is successful. Most state-owned media remains the loyal lapdog of whoever runs the show, whether it's a pre-revolution dictatorship or a post-revolution junta.

But in Egypt it is a tale of two media, with the independent media breaking significant new ground, not only recently but also in the years preceding the revolution.

Although self-censorship remains a problem even in the independent media – as demonstrated by the shelving of an entire print run of Egypt Independent – the revolution has galvanised legions of journalists and media personalities to take on Scaf as they did Mubarak. They express a new-found pride in their vocation and an irrepressible determination to carry on exposing the truth.

For instance, late last year, al-Tahrir TV's talkshow host, the hard-talking Doaa Sultan, mounted a scathing if melodramatic attack on the Egyptian military and the media and political forces, including the Muslim Brotherhood, which the military has co-opted as a fig leaf for its rule.

Moreover, there is a third pillar to Egypt's media landscape that has overshadowed even the independent media: social and citizen media, which spearheaded the revolution and refuses to be cowed. A good example of this is the defiant blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad who, despite having spent more than 300 days behind bars (including at least 80 on hunger strike), refused to stay silent. On his release, he said: "We have one enemy, the military regime and its political dictatorship … It is imperative that we bring [it] down."

And that sense of defiance is Egypt's greatest hope for the future.

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