Egypt's military regime tightens noose on country's media freedoms

Updated

In Egypt, the government's war on the media has entered a new level of intensity.

Key points: Egypt's Journalists Syndicate raided for first time in its 75-year history

Calls for a relaxation of media restrictions and the sacking of the Interior Minister

Peter Greste's Al Jazeera case remains a cautionary tale for journalists

Late last month, at protests against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's decision to hand sovereignty of two islands in the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia, up to 47 journalists were detained.

Hundreds of protesters were also held but most of those arrested — including the journalists — have since been released.

Sherif Mansour from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) believes the arrests were an attempt by the government to stymie coverage of the protests to block the broader population seeing the growing opposition to the Sisi regime.

Last year the New York-based CPJ ranked Egypt as the second biggest jailer of journalists, with 23 in prison in 2015 — only China was ahead of it.

No journalist covering politics in the country today can begin writing without having [the Al Jazeera case] in the back of their minds. Australian journalist Peter Greste

Earlier this month, two Egyptian journalists held a sit-in at Cairo's Journalists Syndicate building to protest against an investigation aimed at prosecuting them for articles critical of the Saudi islands deal — about 50 members of the security forces raided the building to arrest them.

The journalists, Amr Badr, who founded the Yanair news portal and Mahmoud El-Sakka, who is employed there, are still in jail — the pair have been charged with inciting protest and creating chaos.

The situation quickly escalated the following day when the head of the Syndicate of Journalists, Yahia Qalash, called for the sacking of Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffer, who he said was responsible for the raid.

It was the first time the syndicate had been raided in its 75-year history.

Egyptian journalists, media fight back

Many of Egypt's major newspapers, including the Al-Ahram state media daily which is avowedly pro-government, also called for the sacking of the Interior Minister.

Subsequently, the syndicate held an emergency general assembly and demonstration attended by 2,000 journalists.

It is about freedom and to demand clear laws that govern the way that the state deals with journalists. Senior Egyptian journalist Khaled El-Balshy

They sent a list of demands to the government and threatened a strike if they were not met.

The demands included sacking the Interior Minister, freeing jailed journalists, and new protections for the media.

Senior Egyptian journalist and head of the freedom committee at the syndicate, Khaled El-Balshy, said the general assembly took a stand against the escalating assaults on the fourth estate.

"But it is also about freedom in general and to demand clear laws that govern the way that the state deals with journalists," Mr El-Balshy told the ABC.

Some media workers were harassed and beaten-up by pro-Sisi operatives as they attempted to enter the syndicate precinct for the assembly.

Witnesses told the ABC the president's supporters were chanting slogans such as "fags, thugs and bitches" and "butcher them, Sisi."

Al Jazeera case lives 'in the back of minds': Greste

In late December 2013, three Al Jazeera journalists, including Australian Peter Greste, Egyptian Baher Mohamed and dual Canadian-Egyptian citizen Mohamed Fahmy, were arrested, tried and jailed.

The three were convicted on terrorism-related charges and sentenced to between seven and nine years in jail.

They were all finally released in 2015 after more than a year in prison.

Mr Fahmy had to renounce his Egyptian citizenship to be freed from jail and was subsequently deported.

We have seen an unprecedented number of journalists put in jail in Egypt in 2015 and since then it has only escalated. Sherif Mansour from the Committee to Protect Journalists

Peter Greste said despite the uncertainty over what drove the case, it has had a chilling effect on press freedom in Egypt.

"No journalist covering politics in the country today can begin writing without having our case in the back of their minds," Mr Greste said.

Again in 2013, Egyptian photographer Mohamed Abou-Zeid, known as Shawkan, was arrested while covering the security forces' violent dispersal of a pro-Muslim Brotherhood sit-in against the military coup that ousted former president Mohamed Morsi.

Shawkan has now spent over 1,000 days in detention without trial, far exceeding the maximum 2 years allowed under Egyptian law.

Protesting has been illegal in Egypt since 2013, unless there's prior permission from the Interior Ministry and heavy jail sentences have been handed down for violations.

Mr Mansour said the CPJ's analysis concluded the media workers who have been arrested or harassed in Egypt have done nothing more, than doing their jobs.

"We have seen an unprecedented number of journalists put in jail in Egypt in 2015 and since then it has only escalated," he said.

Topics: journalism, police, government-and-politics, censorship, activism-and-lobbying, egypt

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