25 years of muzzled press

September 2004
A Free Press
After Nasser’s iron fist and Sadat’s roundup of dissendent journalists, today’s media professionals enjoy a degree of freedom unprecendented since the Revolution. Here’s how it all went down.
By Manal el-Jesri



EGYPT HAS LIVED through 25 years of media ups and downs, from the time Sadat put a muzzle on most journalists, to the age of President Hosni Mubarak declaring himself the number-one champion of freedom of the press.




Throughout the years, journalists have managed to get their message across to the people, whether through official media, opposition newspapers, the semi-independent press or via satellite channels. Today, despite the continuing efforts of some to control the media, it has become impossible to interrupt the flow of information. Among the highlights and lowlights:

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September 1981: President Anwar Sadat rounds up hundreds of opposition political activists, writers and journalists, throwing them in prison. The crackdown was so significant that even today it is simply referred to as “The September Events.” The writers and journalists were later released by President Hosni Mubarak, who was officially elected president in November 1981. His era started with a lot of optimism: Perhaps it was time for freedom of the press.


December 1981: Naguib Mahfouz sends a subtle message to the new government via Al-Ahram: “The issue is not a purely media related one. It all goes back to the politics of the government versus the people. In the past, the government decided it was wise to hide truths or reveal them slowly, for fear people would feel frustrated. The government thought it could in this way encourage people to become more optimistic and patient.


Associated Press Photo
Mohamed El-Wakilimprisoned for bribery

“This didn’t prevent anyone from noticing the drastic discrepancy between what was said and what was really happening. The result was hardly what officials hoped for. I think it is time we tried the other road, the road of honesty and truth. It is also time to get rid of the euphemisms and rosy promises, to put truth and duty before the citizens.”


1982: Mubarak reinstates the licenses of a number of opposition newspapers that had been shuttered during Sadat’s years. Among them: Al-Ahali, Al-Ahrar, Al-Shaab, Watani, Al-Tali’a and Al-Itisam. Later, the government regretted giving the opposition such a broad platform. Writers for the official press were encouraged to viciously attack the opposition press. In 1984, Ali El-Daly writes for Mayo magazine: “Presidents of opposition parties and their members drool as they hysterically demand equal time on the television screens. They want equal opportunities to reach the public. The only thing they care about is that the protagonists of the devilish Soviet occupation stand on par with honest, God-fearing Egyptians. All they care about is that the protagonists of defeat stand on par with the protagonists of victory. They want the agents of foreign powers to become equal to the brave patriots. They also want the killers of Sadat to be equal in rights to the heroes of the October War.”

Meanwhile, terrestrial television now broadcasts to 26 governorates, up from 16 the previous year. Total programming hours on TV now run to 26 per day, while the number of newspapers leaps from six to 12.


January 1983: Media experts at the Specialized National Committees demand effective steps be taken to stop nightclub singers from appearing on television or from standing in front of radio microphones. Media should not be allowed to advertise their work for fear it might speed the deterioration of social values.


January 1984: As part of the campaign to reintegrate Egypt into the Arab world, Minister of Information Safwat El-Sherif declares, “This year is to be the year for our media to reach out to our Arab brothers.” The same year, the first issue of Al-Wafd rolls off the press. A daily, it quickly becomes the leading opposition newspaper.


July 1984: Egypt’s first media day is held


January 1986: Writer Salama Ahmed Salama criticizes the government for failing to disclose the exact number of deaths that resulted when commandos stormed an Egyptian airliner hijacked on its trip from Athens to Malta. Salama also criticizes blasé coverage of an incident in Ras El-Berka in which an Egyptian soldier, Soliman Khater, killed seven Israelis. Khater was sentenced to life imprisonment, but committed suicide days after his indictment. According to Salama, the Egyptian media’s low-key coverage allowed the Arab media to accuse authorities of killing Khater. Many Arab dailies ran long obituaries mourning “the death of a martyr.”

That same month, the Arab Radio and Television Union officially launches Channel 3, its first regional channel; and the opposition grills El-Sherif in the People’s Assembly on why opposition figures are not allowed to voice their views in the official media.

February 1986: Central Security recruits go on a rampage in Cairo. For the first time in history, Egyptian television airs around-the-clock reports. El-Sherif forms an operations room to monitor everything aired in international media about the riots. Official media covers the riots in Shubra, another first for media freedom.


March 1986: The Arab Network for Media and Communication Research and Documentation is formed.


March 1987: Egyptian media handles the landing of a hijacked Libyan aircraft in Cairo Airport with professionalism. Despite the problems with Libya, the media did not try to exploit the fact that five Libyan army officers had landed in Egypt seeking political asylum. The events were merely reported objectively.

That same month, Yassin Serag Eddin of El-Wafd party questions El-Sherif on the “failure of his media policies.” Serag Eddin cites losses of LE 76 million and attacks the “policies of concealment,” pointing out that the public gets to hear nothing about internal events because the press has become nothing but a government bulletin.

Also in 1987: UNESCO funds the formation of the Arab Radio and Television Union’s first international video news center at a cost of $400,000; the Smithsonian Institute produces a film on Islam and Islamic Egypt, explaining Islam’s stance regarding terrorism.


May 5, 1988: State television reaches Taba, Rafah and Nuweiba, thus covering all of Sinai. Channel 4, the first channel based outside Cairo, goes live, targeting the Canal governorates. Also in May, Writer Youssef Idriss falls prey to lies propagated by Professor Ahmed Shafiq: He helps campaign for Shafiq’s claim to have discovered a cure for AIDS and believes reports that the professor was nominated for the Nobel prize.


October 1993: State-owned Channel 7 is launched, targeting the northern part of Upper Egypt; the Egyptian Satellite Channel (ESC) also goes live.


1994: Prosecutor General Ragaa Al-Arabi bans any media coverage of the real estate scandal on the Red Sea, which eventually ends up toppling the governor and a number of local officials. None were prosecuted.


1995: Egypt’s first Arab Radio and Television festival kicks off. Al-Mobdi’on Yatakabaloun (Creative People Meet), a statement first uttered by El-Sherif, becomes the festival’s motto.


May 1995: Egypt’s press Law No. 93 of 1995 passes in the People’s Assembly. In the following 12 months, 99 journalists, writers and artists including 25 editors-in-chief are prosecuted under the law. Many were imprisoned and fined.

In response, the Press Syndicate releases its first press code of ethics, stipulating that journalists adhere to honesty and objectivity in their work. It also encourages journalists not to bow in the face of pressure, never to divulge their sources, and not to give in to attacks on their person or work.

May 1996: The Egyptian Satellite Channel (ESC) reaches the United States and Canada.


December 1996: “Scandal on the Nile” declares the lead headline in Rose El-Youssef magazine for an investigative piece on corruption at the Arab Radio and Television Union (ARTU) under chairman Mamdouh El-Leithy. The story includes a whiff of sex, abuse of office and the strong stench of money Saudi money.

Employees at state-owned Egyptian Television claim they spent their time doing work for MBC, Orbit and ART instead of their original jobs. They allege that little money was pouring into their pockets, saying it lined El-Leithy’s pockets instead. The story alleges the ARTU boss received an LE 482,000 Mercedes from Saudi businessman Ibrahim bin Brahim so that the latter could pursue an affair with actress Sherine Seif Al-Nasr while she was supposed to be filming a series for Egyptian state television. Seif Al-Nasr, for her part, is alleged to have received a BMW.

El-Leithy responds by suing Adel Hammouda, then Rose El-Youssef’s deputy editor, for libel, effectively bringing disaster upon himself when an investigation by the Prosecutor General’s office confirms El-Leithy had his hand in the cookie jar. El-Leithy is also accused of arranging parties for starlets to meet Gulf Arab millionaires.


February 1997: The independent newspaper Al-Destour, printed in Cyprus, is banned after a headline story warned of a pending Al-Gama’a Al-Islamiyya attack on leading Coptic businessmen, including Orascom chief Naguib Sawiris. Feeling the reins slipping from its hands, the state extends its ban to a number of other publications.

The decision is made public on March 31, reading in part: “After referring to the Constitution, the Trade Law, Law 8 of 1997 on investment incentives, Presidential Decree 284 of 1997 creating the Investment Authority and Free Zones, Presidential Decree 285 of 1997, Prime Ministerial decree 2108 of 1997, Decree 616 of 1997 on preventing Arabic publications from local circulation (except those that specialize in technical, social, sports, economic or financial issues) and decree 55 of 1998 preventing all print projects in Arabic printed in the free zone from local distribution” the General Authority for Free Zones and Investments bans the printing of any publication of any kind in any language in Egypt’s free zones.

Forty-one publications fail to come out on time. Fortunately for them (Egypt Today included), the decision was a short-lived one.


March 1997: Al-Shaab reporter Magdi Hussein becomes the first journalist jailed for libel under the May 1995 press law. Hussein was sued after alleging that a prominent businesswoman married the son of Interior Minister Hassan El-Alfi. The journalist had been carrying out a campaign accusing the minister of abuse of power and condoning police brutality. Al-Shaab is later banned.


October 1997: The press sides with the prosecution in allegations that actresses Nihal Anbar, Hanan Turk and Wafaa Amer were involved in a high-class prostitution ring. All three had been arrested but are subsequently set free. Later that month, Prosecutor General Ragaa Al-Arabi bans any reporting on the case of Sabri Farahat who, with his brother, stands accused of killing nine German tourists and an Egyptian guide in Tahrir Square. The ban comes after Al-Wafd alleged the two brothers were linked to an Islamist militant group. The brothers are later declared “mentally disturbed” and sentenced to death.


1998: Mubarak inaugurates Egypt Media Production City in Sixth of October City.


January 1998: Nilesat 101 launches, carrying specialized channels including channels for Children and Family, Entertainment, News, Drama and Sports.


June 2000: Nefertiti and Adult Education channels go live on Nilesat. Later that month, the media free-zone becomes home to 20 international production companies, including Al-Jazeera, Tamima, Sony, Orbit, Showtime and ART.


August 2000: Nilesat 102, the nation’s second satellite, launches.


November 2000: Al-Mehwar starts airing on Nilesat, with 15 percent of its shares owned by the Egyptian Radio and Television Union. El-Sherif points out that this in no way means the government is planning to interfere in the channel’s agenda or muzzle its right to freedom of expression.


July 2001: Al-Salam City’s media complex, built on 1,350 meters at a cost of LE 206 million, opens.


March 2002: Egyptian television news reporters are attacked by Israeli troops while reporting in the Gaza Strip.


2002: Another corruption scandal rocks the Maspero headquarters of state-owned television: Mohamed El-Wakil, the director of the News Sector, is arrested and later found guilty of charges of bribery and corruption. El-Wakil, claiming innocence, declares, “I received presents. I never knew I was not allowed to do so.” The presents included several Rolex watches, a car, and a number of gold items, all given for arranging bookings on the nation’s top-rated morning television show, Good Morning, Egypt.


August 2003: Hosny Guindy, the founding editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram Weekly, dies, leaving the reins to managing editor Hani Shukrallah.

2004: President Mubarak promises a new unified press law that would eliminate prison penalties in the existing press laws. The president called for immediate work on the new law, but months later not much has taken place. Parliamentarians delay debate of the new draft to the coming People’s Assembly session, this fall.