Protest in front of journalists' syndicate in Cairo on 2 January 2017. NurPhoto/SIPA USA/PA Images. All rights reserved. “Listen
only to me” – Even if he had tried, Egyptian
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi could not have described his authoritarian
military reign better. Exactly one year since he demanded the people not
believe the “enemies of the nation”, the margin for freedom of speech and
expression has progressively shrunk to absurd levels.
On 17 March 2017, government sponsored candidate
Abdel-Mohsen Salama became the head of the journalists' syndicate. Salama is
the managing editor of state owned Al-Ahram
newspaper, and at the top of his list of supporters is former National Security officer Ahmed Mousa, a notorious mouthpiece for the
regime who was supposedly intentionally planted in Al-Ahram. This recent development forecasts even darker times for
an already gloomy era.
The
militarization of politics as well as authoritarianism are suffocating the
people of Egypt. Public spaces are slowly but surely being securitized as the
media is coopted. The economy is being divided like a pie to a select few, as a
number of business tycoons and regime loyalists strategically buy out firms and
distribute them among military men and their associates.
Falling in line with this
clampdown, assets of Mostafa Sakr, owner of Daily
News Egypt, Egypt's only English independent daily print newspaper, and
Arabic financial newspaper Al Borsa,
were frozen.
Sakr has been accused
of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood
terrorist organization. Although handed out abundantly, the accusation was even
more ridiculous this time, as the regime had previously used
the newspaper to seek out investors for its mega projects. It seems
hypocritical, to say the least, to then accuse the owner of the very same
newspaper of being affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. “President Sisi to Daily News Egypt” read the front page of an
August 2014 issue.
The freeze order coincided with parliament passing a media
"regulations" bill, which gives the government total control over both state and
private owned media outlets. The new law stipulates the formation of three
regulatory bodies to oversee all of Egypt’s media outlets, be it public or
private. Heads of these bodies are appointed by none other than the president
himself, according to Article 32.
“The new law opens the
door for the executive authority to dominate media,” Yehia El Qallash, ex-head
of the Press Syndicate, told me. The state is refraining from building trust,
he added, asserting that the current situation does not champion freedom of expression,
and that of the press.
However, Qallash has more
to worry about than the new law.
Qallash informed me that
the syndicate had presented the Amnesties Council with a list of 29 imprisoned journalists, and 18 other journalists not
imprisoned but under threat. Qallash is one of those
18 individuals under threat as well as the head of the syndicate’s Freedoms
Committee, Khaled El Balshy.
Never has the syndicate head been
tried and handed an imprisonment sentence in
its 75 year history. Never has the syndicate HQ been stormed
before, but both catastrophes took place under the Sisi regime.
Qallash and El Balshy are accused of
“harboring fugitives”, namely journalists Amr Badr (also editor-in-chief of Bawabet Yanayer) and Mahmoud Al Sakka. Both
journalists were arrested the night the syndicate headquarters were attacked in
May 2016. They had been outspoken against the selling of the two Red Sea Islands
to Saudi Arabia, and skeptical about official narratives of the murder of Giulio
Regeni, pointing fingers at the state.
“Authorities
were also bothered by the website’s coverage,” Badr said, disclosing that
during the investigation, the journalists were questioned about the stories
they had published. They were put behind bars over stating their opinions,
adding to their 63 jailed colleagues.
“Freedom
of expression in Egypt is a big zero,” Badr believes.
Disbelief
clouded those in the profession, as journalists were banned from attending the
funeral held for the victims of a recent church
explosion, considered one of the biggest
terror attacks during Sisi’s reign of power. The journalists were kept in a
separate room, and were handed official photographs on their way out.
Openly
expressing dissent with policies in Egypt, the contracts of correspondent
AlBaraa Abdullah and TV anchor Lilian Dawood with OnTV were both terminated after the channel
was acquired by pro-state businessman Abu Hashima.
Abu
Hashima now also owns Al Youm Al Sabe’,
Ain, and Sawt Al Omma newspapers,
as well as the Dot Masr online
website. One only has to take a look at these outlet’s amateur headlines to
know what kind of messages they are conveying.
Sisi’s
loyal clan deny the obvious militarization of Egypt and it will be interesting
to see their justification for the appointment of former military spokesman
Mohammed Samir as head of Al-Asema TV
Channel.
The
internet is no exception to the state’s control attempts. While
the digital age provides massive room for freedom of expression, the Egyptian
State is going out of its way to curb this space. Using its ‘digital armies’ and paid
social media trolls, it floods the internet with messages that influence the
less informed, threatening opposition, and constructing an illusion of a public
opinion supportive of the state.
As
the state took away more human rights, it shunned its criticizers in the name
of economic and security stability. But
as the value of the Egyptian Pound sinks lower, it has become harder to mute
critical voices. Prices have increased, while wages remain stagnant. The
economic crisis has started biting the middle
class as it depletes the poor.
Although
militant attacks in northern Sinai have not ceased, with an Egyptian general
assassinated in October, the church explosion exposed the security
apparatus. In the following months, the situation crumbled until hundreds of Copts
fled Al-Arish City, fearing increased threats, killings, and
attacks by militants. Security is why Sisi came to power, and its laxity at a time
of economic turmoil is threatening his supremacy day by day.
With
every decision the government makes, the volume of criticism gets louder, and the
state grows more paranoid. The state is aware that free press means more
accountability and their fear of being monitored, exposed, or held accountable indicates how fragile and insecure they are.
“Dictatorships
fear the truth,” El Balshy told me, narrating how the media had a big role in
exposing toppled President Hosni Mubarak’s regime, and overturning Mohamed
Morsi’s.
Between killing and imprisoning journalists,
a syndicate report stated that more than 782 violations were
carried out in 2015 alone. The Committee to Protect Journalists named Egypt the
third country in the world with the highest number of jailed journalists in
2016.
The sad truth remains that
if you are not a government mouthpiece, you are in danger. While the state
punishes journalists for doing their job, many behind bars are being granted
international awards, including Ismail Alexandrani and Mahmoud Shawkan.
Until these shackles are broken,
those holding dearly to the essence of their profession will have to continue shouting
“journalism is not a crime”.