The year 2007 witnessed serious turning points in the way of the freedom of expression and opinion freedom in Egypt . These points affected the year 2007 and affect the year 2008 since many cases have been launched before the end of 2007.
The Arabic Network For Human Rights Information, due to its involvement in many cases, recorded such points as follows:
I- The excessive use of libel and defamation articles of the penal code
II- The strong return of political and religious “Hesba” cases
III- The increasing phenomenon of non-syndicate member journalists, and depriving journalists from the syndicate membership
IV- Formulating a press working against press freedom
V- The elections of the journalists syndicate
VI- One-day withdrawal of 22 independent and parties newspapers
I - The excessive use of libel and defamation articles of the penal code
The libel and defamation charges were excessively used against journalist and men of letter during the year 2007. We hardly find an independent journalist who was not accused of such crimes by the state of the democratic party or even by the “Hesba” lawyers.
It seems that the Egyptian government is not intending to amend the penalty of this crime to be financial fine instead of imprisonment. Moreover, the government directly or indirectly, launched many cases of that type against many journalists.
Reducing the space given to expression and rejecting all forms of criticism made many lawyers and officials interpret any criticism written by a journalist as libel and defamation. For example, the journalist who criticized the minister of military production, who is a parliament member for Helwan district, was accused of libel and defamation by the minister, because the journalist branded the minister as the worst parliament member for Helwan district. This example is a serious indicator against journalists and society rights to criticize the officials and to reveal their undemocratic and unclear practices.
II- The strong return of political and religious “Hesba” cases
It seems that the year 2007 was the year of religious and political Hesba.
Once again this hectic number of such cases that restrict the freedom of press and expression, reveals the bad stance of the Egyptian government towards the sever set back of the Egyptian society.
The general prosecutor investigated a notice handed by one of the Hesba lawyers against Dr. Nawal El Se'dawi accusing her of disbelieving.
It is very obvious that the ruling party contribute its quota in the Hesba case through many law suits launched by the party lawyers against journalists who criticize the government and the national democratic party. The best example for this are the cases launched against Ibrahim Isa, the editor-in-chief of Al Dustur newspaper.
Moreover, many fanatic religion men sniped the opportunity to spread an atmosphere of fanaticism and fear among writers and journalists through launching hundreds of these cases regardless winning them or not. Such cases make their lawyer gain a lot whether on the fanatic atmosphere they create or on the financial gains they get through the compensation law suits against journalists and writers besides the heroic fame they gain. Such lawyers became TV shows stars and gained a lot, regardless the great loss and retardation of the Egyptian society due to their cases.
III- The increasing phenomenon of non-syndicate member journalists, and depriving journalists from the syndicate membership
Q- In Egypt, who is the journalist?
A- A journalist in Egypt is the person who is a member in the journalists syndicate, whether he/she works in journalism or not.
Thousands of professional journalists, most are youth, who formulated many government and parties and independent newspapers, are deprived from being members in the syndicate of journalists, because of the harsh regulations imposed by the syndicate and by law, like the condition that a journalist can be a syndicate member only when he/she has a contract with a licensed Egyptian newspaper.
Such condition pave the way to many officials to impose very difficult job conditions like law salaries – or no salary at all- or bad treatment. Many journalists, specially, youth, face these bad conditions to become syndicate members.
The most clear-cut example of this is the “Shabab mist” newspaper, the mouthpiece of a party with the same name. 15 journalists engaged by this newspaper for more than 12 months without being paid. Some of these journalists paid from his own to support the newspaper. These dreamed of a great newspaper and of the syndicate membership. The party president, who is close to the National Democratic Party (NDP), the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, did not pay the journalists and did not recruit them in the newspaper to get the syndicate membership.
The situation in the journalists syndicate is the same in other labor or professional syndicates. Since the 1950s, the state overwhelms the parliament. This attitude restricted the right to multi sydicalistic attitude. In professional syndicates, to be a member one should practice the profession. Syndicates became places to give licenses and are not entities that defend the rights of its members.
The number of professional journalists who are not syndicate members is about eight thousand journalists. The number of journalists syndicate members in Egypt is no more that five thousand journalists.
IV- Newspapers work against the press freedom
After three years of low distribution returns, Rose Al Yousif newspaper decided to adopt a new strategy to achieve good publicity to announce its ability to compete.
This newspaper adopted a strategy which does not meet the needs of a society suffering from the culture of suppression and opinion confiscation.
This newspaper created false conflicts with the parties and independent newspapers, hoping that such newspapers would write about it, in an miserable attempt to attract the readers. This newspaper, on its pages, attacked most political activists, human rights organizations, journalists, and space channel. No one remained to be praised by this newspaper, except the ministry of interior and the Egyptian president's son Mr. Gamal Mubarak.
The newspaper badly exploited the situation of escalated suppression against independent and parties press. It encouraged against the journalists chased by the state and the Hesba lawyers. The most hostility was directed to Al Dustur and Al Masri Al Youm newspapers, the first along with it editor-in-chief Ibrahim Isa faced more.
The state, the Hesba lawyers and some trifle newspapers, on top comes “Rose Al Yousif” became the main suppressors against press.
This made some people ironically comment of the situation by saying, “The diversity in Egypt is represented in the newspapers which defend the press freedom, and the newspapers which hate the press freedom!”
V- The elections of the journalists syndicate
The syndicate of journalists is one of the ancient institutions in Egypt , established in 1941 to defend the freedom of press through its affiliated committees. It also, release an annual report about its activities.
The syndicate of journalist is the Egyptian citizens tribune to address the officials through the peaceful demonstrations and protests.
In November 2007, the general assembly of the syndicate held a meeting to elect a chief and the board members. The judicial committee supervising the elections declared the journalist Makram Muhammad Ahmad, close to the government, a chief of the syndicate. The so called syntactical independency trend was defeated in the elections.
The elections day was so difficult that it threatened the fate of the syndicate. As per the report of the committee formed by human rights editors, “the vote count process for board members was halted for more than three hours because the general assembly members objected on the electoral commission supervisors who left the commission bearing sealed envelops containing the votes and 10 votes minutes. They toke the sealed envelops to Southern Cairo Court in Bab El Khalq before finishing the vote count of 6 ballot boxes. The general assembly members, and the candidates and their representatives objected on the behavior of the judicial commission supervising the elections who decided to declare the boll from the headquarter of the court. Many of the attendants started to shout demanding declaring the poll in the headquarter of the syndicate not in the court.
After declaring the poll the new board of the journalists syndicate was formed as follows:
Makram Muhammad Ahmad, chief
Abdul Mohsen Salama (Al Ahram), Hatem Zakaria ( Al Akhbar), Yasser Rezq (Al Akhbar), Salah Abdul Maqsoud (International Arabic Media Center), Muhammad Abdul Quddus (Al Akhabar), Abeer Al Sa'di (Al Akhbar), Yehya Qallash (Al Gomhouria), Muhammad Kharaga (Al Ahram Al Masa'i), Gamal Abdul Raheem (Al Gomhouria), Hani Emara (Al Ahram Al Masa'i), Alaa Thabit (Al Ahram Al Masa'i), and Gamal Fahmi (Al Arabi), Memebers.
VI-One-day withdrawal of 22 independent and parties newspapers
As a way to face the wild campaign launched by the state against the press in Egypt , 22 newspapers decided to make a one-day withdrawal to stop the cases launched against journalists and to protest on eradicating the little margin given to the freedoms. This came after sentencing 7 editors-in-chief. That was the straw that broke the camel's back, and unfulfilled the 3-year old president's promise to abandon the jail sentence regarding publishing.
The protest done by the 22 newspapers succeeded in attracting attention to the deteriorated situation in press freedom in Egypt . The most significant matter was the integration between the withdrawn newspapers and some websites specially human rights ones.
