Circle of Hell was painted to raise awareness of sexual harassment and assault in Egypt. Photo: Melody Patry / Index on Censorship
Since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak two years ago, artists have been active in breaking Egypt’s age-old taboos around sexual violence, especially since sexual harassment has been on the rise. In the period after the revolution, artists — including women — have covered the country’s walls with murals and slogans, using them to amplify calls for change. Melody Patry reports.
More than two years after mass protests in Egypt demanding “freedom” among other things, the media in Egypt, post revolution, is a lot more vibrant and freer than it was under toppled President Hosni Mubarak. But it is a sensational, tabloid and segmented media, reflecting the deep polarization in the country, Shahira Amin reports.
Preliminary research from a survey of nearly 10,000 Arab respondents has found that while most support the right to free expression online, they are apt to believe that the internet should be regulated, according to the researchers.
The survey — a joint effort between researchers at the Qatar campus of the US-based Northwestern University and the World Internet Project — explored media usage in the Arab world. Participants were drawn from eight Arab nations: Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates.
The survey questioned participants’ perceptions of the news media, finding that 61 per cent thought the “quality of news reporting in the Arab world has improved over the past two years.” Media credibility declined in countries that experienced revolutions during the Arab Spring. The Saudi Arabian respondents gave their media outlets high marks with 71 [per cent agreeing with the statement, “The media in your country can report the news independently without interference from officials”.
Overall, the survey found high Facebook penetration among respondents who used social media. Ninety-four percent of the social media users had Facebook accounts, 47 per cent used Twitter and 40 per cent used Facebook. Among the Bahrain social media users, 92 per cent had a Facebook account, while just 29 per cent of the Egyptian respondents did.
The survey aimed to assess the use of media — TV, radio, newspapers, books, web — and levels of trust respondents had toward the sources. It also sought to guage how the respondents used the internet to communicate and conduct transactions like banking or purchases.
A controversial draft law governing the activities of non-governmental organizations, NGOs, operating in Egypt has come under fire from rights groups who denounce it as “a continuation of the repressive policies of the toppled regime” and fear it would “curb the freedom of Egypt’s civil society.”
Despite the criticism, the draft law — which was prepared by the Islamist-dominated Shura Council’s Human Development Committee — has been given preliminary approval by the Council, the upper house of Egypt’s parliament endowed with legislative powers until the election of a new People’s Assembly or lower house.
Egypt’s government is considering a draft NGO law. Photo: Shutterstock
If passed, the legislation would put the 13,000 or so local and international NGOs operating in Egypt under full government control, requiring security agencies to grant them licenses and monitor their funding. According to the draft law, a committee comprising members of the Interior Ministry and Egypt’s National Security Agency would decide whether NGOs may or may not receive funding from abroad. Furthermore, those allowed foreign funding would not have direct access to the money as transfers would get deposited in a government bank account, ensuring that all transactions take place under close government scrutiny. NGOs would also need the committee’s permission to transfer funds abroad and would be barred from conducting surveys and from profiting from their organization’s activities.
Rights groups and campaigners have decried the draft legislation, arguing that it is even more restrictive than the current Mubarak-era Law 84 (issued in 2002) which was designed to limit and control the operations of NGOs. The draft law would severely hamper the work of NGOs, they say.
“The draft law would make it almost impossible for NGOs to operate in Egypt,” lamented Heba Morayef, director of Human Rights Watch, Egypt in comments published in state-sponsored daily al-Ahram.
Freedom House, a U.S.-based NGO working to promote democracy and human rights has also expressed deep concern over the draft legislation, stating “that the proposed bill would radically restrict the space for local and international NGOs working on issues of human rights and democracy.” It called on the Egyptian government to demonstrate its commitment to democratic reform by replacing the current draft law with one that promotes freedom of association.
“The legislation blatantly contradicts the Egyptian government’s stated goal of moving the country toward democracy,” Freedom House President David Kramer said in a statement posted on the NGO’s website. He also urged the international community to link political and financial support for Egypt with the Egyptian government’s actions to advance progress toward democracy.
Lawmakers and some members of the liberal opposition have defended the bill, however, arguing that it was “necessary to protect Egypt’s national security interests. ”
“Some of the NGOs are undercover espionage cells secretly promoting a US-Israeli agenda”, Nagi El-Shehabi, a member of the Generation Party has been quoted by al Ahram as saying.
The allegations echo similar accusations made last year by then-Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Aboul Naga against foreign-funded non-profit organizations working to promote democracy and human rights in Egypt. Aboul Naga had claimed that the pro-democracy organizations were working “to spread chaos in the country”. Her remarks came after a vicious crackdown on NGOs — both local and foreign, including Freedom House by security forces. In December 2011, security raids were conducted on 17 NGO offices and hundreds of their staffers were threatened with investigations. Meanwhile five mostly-US funded NGOs working to promote human rights and democracy were accused of “receiving illegal funding from foreign governments, including the US ” and of “operating in Egypt without a license”–charges that were denied by the NGOs.
Forty-three NGO workers were prosecuted including 17 foreign nationals who left the country some weeks later, save for one defendant who chose to remain and face trial. A verdict in the landmark case is expected on June 4, 2013. While state-run media lambasted the NGOs, accusing them of plotting to divide the country and threatening Egypt’s national security, rights campaigners insisted that the widely-publicized NGO case “was politically motivated”. Bahieddin Hassan, Director of the Cairo Centre for Human Rights Studies, meanwhile suggested that the foreign NGOs were attacked “to intimidate local NGOs and undermine their work.”
The chilling NGO court case also succeeded in fueling suspicions among an already skeptical public of foreign organizations operating in the country, consolidating the government’s view that the NGOs’ activities were tantamount to “foreign interference in the country’s internal affairs”. The trial of the pro-democracy activists (which has dragged on since), meanwhile coincided with public service announcements that were broadcast on Egyptian TV channels, warning citizens against talking to foreigners “because they might be spies.” Although the TV spots were quickly removed after fierce denunciations by critics that they were “fueling xenophobia”, they unleashed a wave of angry attacks by demonstrators on tourists and foreign journalists covering protests against military rule during the country’s turbulent transitional period.
Meanwhile, Essam El Erian, a former Presidential advisor and a prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, FJP, has lauded the draft law as “an attempt to curb corruption promoted by some international NGOs.”
“Some of the money given by the US to those NGOs has gone to spreading corruption in the country,” he said, adding that the bill would ensure “greater transparency of NGOs’ activities and funding”.
The storm raised by rights campaigners and NGOs over by the contentious draft legislaion has forced Freedom and Justice Party MPs, who hastily pushed the draft law through at a Shura Council session last week, to back down. After the session during which the draft law was “approved in principle” by lawmakers in parliament, Shura Council Speaker, Ahmed Fahmy — a Muslim Brotherhood member — affirmed that “the Council was still willing to review an alternative NGO law drafted by the government”.
Although no details have yet been released about the government-drafted law, rights groups and activists hope that the alternative legislation — which MPs have promised to discuss in parliament “within days” — will be free from the restrictions and tight control on funding and licensing that threaten to cripple Egypt’s civil society (if the MPs draft law is passed).
“We want an NGO law that would empower civil society organizations contribute to the development of this country not one that undermines their work”, Omar El-Sharif, Deputy Justice Minister, told a parliamentary session last week. Many are holding their breath.
“I swear, by God, the armed forces did not kill nor order killings of protesters,” Egypt’s Defence Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sissi told Egyptian State TV earlier this month.
Al-Sissi defended the armed forces, insisting the military had “protected Egypt and safeguarded the January 25, 2011 Revolution.” He also warned the media against slandering the military.
Al-Sissi’s comments came in response to leaks to the Guardian and Egypt’s independent Al Shorouk newspaper from a report by a fact-finding commission implicating the military in human rights abuses during and after the 18-day mass uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak. The commission was formed after President Mohamed Morsi came to power in June 2012 in the wake of tensions with the country’s powerful military. In a report handed to President Morsi in December, the commission stated that “the military had ordered doctors to operate on wounded protesters without anaesthetic and that soldiers killed and tortured demonstrators — including performing humiliating virginity tests on female protesters less than a month after the uprising”, according to the Guardian. The military had also participated in forced disappearances, with more than 1,000 people reported missing during the 18 days of the January 2011 uprising.
While al-Sissi has denied the charges, a video clip posted on YouTube shortly after his statement was broadcast on Egyptian state TV tells an entirely different story. The video was posted by Askar Kazeboon, or Military Are Liars — a group of volunteers whose declared aim is to “expose the lies of the armed forces and inform the public about military abuses.” The clip showed soldiers brutally beating and kicking protesters. It also depicted scenes of the December 2011 “blue bra incident” during which a female protester was dragged by soldiers and stripped half naked during protests against military rule outside the parliament building in Cairo. During the clashes between military forces and protesters on Qasr al-Aini Street, the army had also assaulted and arrested journalists, confiscating their equipment, and targeting news outlets. A military spokesman soon afterwards denied any wrongdoing, claiming that the army had “exercised self-restraint.”
Activists responded to the claims by launching Askar Kazeboon — an alternative campaign to “expose the state media propaganda lies” by screening video clips in public spaces across the country, depicting scenes of military forces practicing severe brutality against peaceful demonstrators. The footage is often interlaced with military denials of involvement in any criminal activity. Besides screening videos of military abuse, the Askar Kazeboon — or the Military are Liars — team has staged protest-marches in several cities and towns and used social media networks Facebook and Twitter to raise public awareness about the violent military crackdown on protesters demanding an end to military rule during the transitional period (when the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces was in power). The group’s Facebook page has approximately 149,000 fans and the number is steadily increasing.
The latest Askar Kazeboon video which has gone viral on social media networks Facebook and Twitter, has embarassed the armed forces while serving as a reminder that it is becoming all the more difficult to hide truths in the ‘Information Age’ when activists and bloggers are constantly taking pictures on their mobile phones, uploading and sharing them with internet users around the world. But the video is not the first of its kind countering the narrative of state media . On 27 January 2012, the group’s video clips were projected onto the facade of the Egyptian State Television building at Maspero “to shame the state broadcaster for propogating lies” — according to campaign members — after state TV channels broadcast a video produced by the military’s Public Affairs Department depicting protesters throwing rocks and molotovs at military forces in downtown Qasr el Aini Street and showing children “confessing” to having been paid to attack the military. The following month, the Askar Kazeboon group took their campaign one step further, projecting their video clips onto the outer walls of the Ministry of Defence –the SCAF Headquarters.
“By taking our protest movement out of Tahrir Square into other districts , villages and hamlets, we have managed to attract more followers to our cause ” Reem Dawoud, a founding member of the campaign told Index. She added that the group’s mission was the pursuit of” transparency, accountability and free flow of information.”
The campaign has over the last sixteen months evolved into an initiative “countering the lies of those who speak in the name of religion” — in reference to the ruling Muslim Brotherhood, which has reneged on several promises, including the promise not to field a presidential candidate. Askar Kazeboon and other initiatives — like Ikhwan Kazeboon and the No to Military Trials Campaign — do more than just open peoples’ eyes to vivid truths; they also symbolise an unprecedented level of street and cyberactivism that was lacking in the pre-revolution days. Gone are the days when the state had near-total control over the media and when the government had succeeded in silencing voices of dissent. Despite growing fears that a government crackdown on media critical of the Morsi regime in recent months could pave the way for a regression in the freedom of expression — overturning the gains made in freedom of speech since the revolt more than two years ago — the campaigns bring hope of a freer, more transparent society where every citizen has the right to access information and hold authorities to account.
Journalist Shahira Amin resigned from her post as deputy head of state-run Nile TV in February 2011. Read why she resigned from the “propaganda machine” here.
Egyptian Information Minister Salah Abdel Maqsoud — a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s ruling Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) — faces mounting pressure to resign, amid allegations that he sexually harassed a young female journalist.
Media workers protest in 2012 over plans to try to close one of the oldest printing press firms in Egypt – Khaled Basyouny / Demotix
Speaking at an awards ceremony honouring journalists for courageous reporting last weekend, Abdel Maqsoud was interrupted by reporter Nada Mohamed, who asked “where is press freedom when journalists are being attacked and killed?” The Minister responded with “come here and I will show you where media freedom is” — provoking an uproar from journalists, activists, bloggers, and TV talk show hosts, who suggested that his comments — made in Arabic — had a “sexual connotation”.
In a Facebook post, Mohamed (who works for Arabic news site Hoqook, and received an award during the ceremony) said that the Minister’s comments “shocked and disappointed” her. This isn’t Abdel Maksoud’s first time stirring controversy with “indecent” remarks: during a live interview on Dubai TV last year he said to television host Zeina Yazigi, “I hope the questions are not as hot as you are.” Clearly embarrassed by the remark Yazigi retorted with “my questions are hot but I am not.”
Abdel Maqsoud’s impertinent remarks coincided with protests by State TV employees outside the TV building in Cairo’s downtown district of Maspero over anticipated pay cuts for broadcasters on Sunday. Egypt’s Radio and Television Union has been facing a staggering debt of approximately 20 billion LE, which Abdel Maqsood says has been inherited from the previous administration.
Demonstrators also complained of “a government plot to ‘Ikhwanise’ the media” (a term used to refer to the appointment of members of the Muslim Brotherhood in key positions). They also expressed frustration with “continued interference by senior management in editorial content”, claiming that “editorial policies remain unchanged” and that they “continue to face restrictions on their reporting.”
The Minister has denied the accusations, insisting that media in the Egypt “now enjoys greater freedom than ever before.” During an interview with MBC-Egypt following Abdel Maqsoud’s inappropriate remarks, Mohamed and the programme’s host, Mona El Shazli, acknowledged that the media was much freer in Egypt post-revolution. El Shazli, however, lamented that the crackdown on journalists today is far more brutal, adding that “journalists face intimidation, physical assaults and even death in an attempt to silence voices of dissent.”
According to the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has received more than 600 legal complaints against journalists since Morsi entered office in June 2012. Shortly after coming under fire for the Public Prosecutor’s investigation of popular TV satirist Bassem Youssef for insulting Morsi and Islam, the President’s office withdrew all lawsuits filed by the presidency against journalists “out of respect for freedom of expression.”
The Minister has also insisted that the government was working to abolish laws allowing for the imprisonment of journalists for what they publish. In an effort to appease TV employees, he also promised them 10 per cent of revenues from advertising. Critics, however, say that Abdel Maqsoud’s latest remarks are “too little, too late.” Producer for the state-sponsored Nile Cultural Channel, Tarek Abdel Fattah, said during the protest Sunday that “the days of Abdel Maqsoud as Minister are numbered. A cabinet reshuffle is expected in the coming weeks and we are hoping that there will be no Minister of Information in the new lineup.”
“What has Abdel Maqsoud done beside build a wall and erect barricades around the building?” he asked.
Abdel Maqsoud had earlier said that he would be Egypt’s last Minister of Information, as plans are underway for the establishment of a new Media Council to replace the Information Ministry. According to Egypt’s new constitution, the proposed media council would “promote press freedom while preserving the moral values of the society.” While abolishing the Ministry of Information would fulfil one of the Egypt’s young revolutionaries, many of them are concerned that the new charter may undermine freedom of expression.
“We do not need another body or organisation to regulate the media”, Sameh Kassem, of independent newspaper Al Dostour, told Index. “In the Digital Age, readers, viewers and listeners should be able to decide for themselves what they can or cannot read, watch and hear”, he said. ”A media council and the Ministry of Information are just two different faces of the same coin.”
Egypt is taking steps to enforce a ban on internet porn ordered by a Cairo court late last year. The ban was first ordered three years ago, but went unimplemented. This time it looks like it’s going to happen, and it won’t be cheap: the necessary filtering system will cost the country’s government 25 million Egyptian pounds (about £2.4 million).
According to Sherif Hashem, deputy head of the National Telecom Regulatory Authority, Egypt has been installing the filters since January.
Amr Gharbeia, civil liberties director for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) told Index that, “there is very little information on Egypt’s censorship and deep packet inspection capabilities. So far, Egypt’s non-independent National Telecom Regulation Authority (NTRA) has claimed Egypt’s telecom ecosystem does not have this kind of equipment, and that it is not in its mandate as a regulator to filter content.”
News of the ban comes at a time when the country’s Islamist leadership is facing a host of post-revolution problems: Egypt’s unemployment rate has now reached 13 per cent. In the past two years the country’s foreign reserves have gone from £23.5 billion to £8.5 billion. This past weekend saw sectarian clashes outside of a Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo, with at least eight dead, and many injured. Unsurprisingly, President Mohamed Morsi’s approval rating has reached an all-time low.
Egypt is currently negotiating a $4.8 billion IMF loan, which requires that the country decrease subsidies and increase taxes. Last month, officials announced that subsidised bread would be rationed — a decision that sparked angry protests from bakers. While this isn’t the first time that Egypt has faced protests for increased bread prices, the move flies in the face of one of the Muslim Brotherhood’s main principles: alleviating poverty.
So with all of Egypt’s social and economic woes — why enforce a costly ban on porn now? Gharbeia told Index that the Muslim Brotherhood “is caught between a rock and a hard place, and is finding great difficulty trying to appease to the more conservative currents and the more liberal groups.”
An improved filtering system might mean that Egypt could implement bans that have previously gone unimplemented, due to technical difficulties. In February, an Egyptian court ordered that YouTube be banned for 30 days, for refusing to remove anti-Islam film, the Innocence of Muslims. The ban was eventually thrown out. Gharbeia said that while a ban on the video-sharing site is “unlikely and very costly”, “it is not impossible in the future, if socially conservative powers remain in power and continue to be the majority in parliament.” Egypt has postponed parliamentary elections to October this year.
Sara Yasin is an editorial assistant at Index. She tweets from @missyasin.
A recent crackdown on journalists and opposition activists has increased fears that Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi will use tactics similar to his ousted predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, to silence dissent.
Earlier this month, a group of activists spraying anti-Muslim Brotherhood graffiti on the ground outside the headquarters of the Islamist group’s political party, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), were attacked by plain clothes security guards and Muslim Brotherhood supporters with sticks and chains. Journalists who were at the scene, covering a meeting between Muslim Brotherhood leaders and Hamas officials were also assaulted by the guards. A journalist working for independent newspaper Yom El Sabe’ was arrested and detained for several hours, and one cameraman sustained head injuries, and had his equipment confiscated.
A bus on fire during clashes in Cairo last week
The assault provoked outrage from Egypt’s liberal opposition and journalists alike. Opposition groups and political parties called for a “million people rally” to protest the attacks. In scenes reminiscent of the violence last December following Morsi’s decree giving him absolute powers, thousands of protesters last Friday stormed the Muslim Brotherhood’s offices in several cities, and four buses used to ferry government supporters to their Mottaqam headquarters were torched. Several journalists were injured during clashes that erupted between opposition protesters and Islamist supporters, and police used tear gas to disperse the crowd.
On 24 March, Islamists staged a protest outside the Media Production City, demanding “a purge of the media” and protesting what they called “biased coverage of the violence at Moqattam.” Reham el Sahly, a presenter for independent channel Dream TV, was attacked by protesters, and her car windows were smashed. Protesters chanted slogans against TV talk show hosts working for privately owned media networks, accusing them of “constantly vilifying Islamists and deepening the polarisation of the country.” The protest was the second time Islamists have besieged the studios of privately owned satellite channels in the Media City in recent months, barring media workers from entering or leaving the complex. In December, Salafi protesters staged a week-long sit-in outside the Media City, demanding the dismissal of talk show hosts for attacking President Morsi and his Islamist supporters.
Last week, journalists also protested outside the Media Production City, demanding an end to attacks on journalists. Journalists have planned more protests later on this week, to demand authorities uphold press freedom. Diaa Rashwan, a leftist political analyst and newly elected Head of the Syndicate (replacing outgoing pro-Brotherhood Mamdouh El Wali) vowed to pursue charges against Mahmoud Ghozlan, the Islamist party’s spokesman, “for suggesting that journalists had incited the violence.” In a statement, Ghozlan said that the guards outside of the FJP offices were provoked by the activists and journalists, who taunted and insulted them. State-owned newspaper Al Ahram reported that another spokesman from the group said that “while the activists have a right to express themselves freely and protest peacefully, insults and sabotage were unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, President Morsi has issued stern warnings that his patience was wearing thin, and that “those using the media to incite violence would face punishment.” He has accused owners of private TV stations (many of whom are businessmen with close ties to the Mubarak-era regime) of using their networks to criticise and insult him. Two days after the clashes, while opening a conference on women’s rights at the presidential palace on Sunday, Morsi vowed to take “whatever measures were necessary to protect the nation and restore order.”
“Those derailing the democratic transition and spreading chaos will be held to account by law”, Morsi warned. He hinted that former regime officials — recently acquitted of corruption charges — were behind the recent violence, and promised that they would be “brought to justice.”
Khaled Dawoud, spokesman for the National Salvation Front (NSF), the main opposition bloc, told Reuters that he believes the warnings were “a prelude to suppressive measures that would be taken to silence critics of the Muslim Brotherhood.” While denying it was inciting violence, the NSF has in turn, accused the government of launching attacks on the media with the aim of “monopolising power and controlling the state.”
Lawsuits have been filed against several members of the media in recent days. TV talk show host Bassem Youssef has had charges brought against him for allegedly insulting President Morsi on his weekly political satire show El-Bernameg (The Programme), broadcast on privately-owned channel CBC. Similar charges were brought against Yousef in December, but they were dropped before the case reached court.
According to Gamal Eid, a human rights lawyer and activist, “the number of lawsuits filed by citizens against journalists under President Morsi’s rule was four times the number filed during the entire 30-year rule of toppled president Hosni Mubarak.” Reporters Without Borders (RSF) earlier this month issued a statement condemning the government’s repressive measures against journalists in Egypt and expressing concern about “the decline in freedom of information in the country”. RSF cited the judicial investigation of prominent TV presenter Dina Abdel Fattah on charges of “promoting terrorism” as an example of the government’s repressive policies stifling free expression. “Gagging the media will only fuel instability”, the statement warned.
Fattah was released on bail of 5,000 Egyptian Pounds after being investigated by the Public Prosecutor for hosting members of the so-called “Black Bloc”on a show that she hosted on private satellite channel El Tahrir. The Black Bloc youths are members of a newly formed opposition movement described by the government as “a group of anarchists and vandals”. Fattah resigned from the channel in protest against censorship, after her programme was canceled by the network’s senior management. The prosecutor’s office said more than 200 complaints had been filed against her by private citizens. Members of the Shura Council (the Upper House of parliament) had also filed a lawsuit accusing Fattah’s programme of “inciting vandalism” and being a “threat to public order.”
Since August, several lawsuits have been filed against prominent talk show hosts and journalists but none have been convicted — leading many to speculate that the charges were meant to intimidate and silence critics of the regime. Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression award winner Ibrahim Eissa was accused by an Islamist lawyer of blasphemy, and defaming Islam after he mockingly said on his TV programme that “pickpockets would have their hand cut off according to Sharia, but those who steal billions from banks are allowed to get away with it.”
Television host Mahmoud Saad was summoned for questioning by the public prosecutor along with a guest on one of his programmes for allegedly insulting President Morsi on air. The guest, Dr. Manal Omar, said on Saad’s programme that the Islamist president was “suffering from psychological problems after serving jail time under ousted President Hosni Mubarak.”
In recent months, the government has also pursued defamation charges against journalists Abdel Haleem Qandil (Editor in Chief of Nasserist paper Al Arabi ) and Islam Afifi ( Editor-in-Chief of the private daily Al Dostour ) who have both been investigated for “insulting the president.” Hannan Youssef, the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the local daily Al Messa has been fined 10,000 Egyptian pounds for libel. In January, columnist Gamal Fahmy was investigated by the Public Prosecutor for suggesting that journalist Hussein Abou Deif was killed for exposing the fact that President Morsi’s brother-in-law, who had been convicted in a bribery case, was released under a presidential pardon.
Rights lawyer and activist Hafez Abu Seada, who heads the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) has condemned the charges against journalists, saying they represent a serious threat to free expression in post-revolution Egypt. In a statement published by the EOHR , he said the increasing number of lawsuits filed against journalists and media figures was a method of intimidation used against journalists to stop them criticising the president. Journalists have meanwhile vowed to continue protesting to press for an end to censorship, systemic intimidation by the state and physical attacks against them.
State TV anchor Bothaina Kamel, who was investigated by TV lawyers in January for suggesting interference by the pro- Brotherhood Minister of Information in editorial content, told Index: “Journalists are no longer intimidated. There’s no going back to the old ways. The fear barrier is gone. We had a revolution for freedom and will continue to stand up against censorship and fight for free expression.”
Kamel also called for legislation to protect journalists against investigation and physical attacks. She also called for foreign aid to Egypt to rely on Morsi’s ability to follow through on promises to protect freedom and democracy. “Western donors cannot continue to back an undemocratic government that uses repressive means to stifle freedom of expression”, she said.
