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Mass media in Egypt
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Mass media in Egypt
Mass media in Egypt are highly influential in Egypt and in the Arab World, attributed to its large audience and its historical TV and film industry supplies to the Arab-speaking world.
A period of ease on media marked the last years of Hosni Mubarak's rule, but since the 2011 revolution and 2013 coup d'état, Reporters Without Borders said "successive governments have tried to control the media and have not hesitated to impose measures restricting journalists' freedom," in 2016, and "the situation of media freedom in Egypt is extremely worrying" in 2017. While state media is "almost always loyal to President al-Sisi," and most pro-Islamist media have been closed, or now broadcast from abroad, journalists and human rights defenders are denied access to parts of the Sinai region and are obliged to report only the official version of terrorist attacks under the terrorism law that was adopted in August 2015. Following the 2011 revolution, acquisitions of media outlets and private newspapers by businessmen linked to the government started surfacing, initially with close ties to the newly in-power Muslim Brotherhood, businessmen then shifted in 2013 with the deposition of former President Mohamed Morsi to Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's support and regime. In 2016 the takeover by businessmen linked to the government and intelligence services escalated rapidly; and the regime's domination of the media is affecting even pro-government media. In addition to those acquisitions, the government tapped into the market with a major new TV network named "DMC" with a range of news, sports, and entertainment channels changing the landscape beyond the "official" outlets that lost their credibility, DMC also imposed a de facto monopoly over filming where other privately owned TV channels are denied access. On the internet, Egypt banned at least 62 websites in a crackdown in June 2017, including Daily Sabah, Medium, Al Jazeera, The Huffington Post, and Mada Masr along with opposition websites, like El-Badil, for containing material that "support terrorism and extremism as well as publish lies", that blockade was followed by a growing list of censorship circumvention and VPN providing websites in addition to the blockade of OpenVPN protocol on a national scale. The crackdown was condemned by the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), Mada Masr, and by the Index on Censorship. The ATFE stated that "the blocking of websites violates the Egyptian Constitution". The country saw a period of increasing freedom from governmental control during the last years of ousted president Hosni Mubarak. Although Freedom of the media is guaranteed in the constitution, and the government was increasingly respecting this, however many laws still remain that restrict this right. Back in 2005, and after the Egyptian presidential election, Ahmed Selim, office director for Information Minister Anas al-Fiqi, declared the era of "free, transparent and independent Egyptian media".
The printing press was first introduced to Egypt by Napoleon Bonaparte during his French Campaign in Egypt and Syria. He brought with his expedition a French, Arabic, and Greek printing press, which were far superior in speed, efficiency and quality than the nearest presses used in Istanbul. In the Middle East, Africa, India, and even much of Eastern Europe and Russia, printing was a minor, specialized activity until at least the 18th century. From about 1720, the Mutaferrika Press in Istanbul produced substantial amounts of printing, of which some Egyptian clerics were aware at the time. Juan Cole reports that "Bonaparte was a master of what we would now call spin, and his genius for it is demonstrated by reports in Arabic sources that several of his more outlandish allegations were actually taken seriously in the Egyptian countryside."
The written press is very diverse in Egypt, with over 600 newspapers, journals, and magazines. However these are owned mostly or in some way by the government, the opposition or other political parties. Several journalists from private newspapers have been arrested and jailed for breaching laws that prohibit criticism of the President, state institutions and foreign leaders, or "putting out false news harming the reputation and interests of the country". However, unlike many of Egypt's regional counterparts, criticism of the government in general does take place, after amendments to existing press laws in 2006 which however still criminalise libel.
In 2009 an Egyptian court revoked the publishing license for Ibdaa ("creativity"), a small-circulation literary magazine, for publishing a "blasphemous" poem by Hilmi Salem called "On the balcony of Leila Murad" in which God is likened to an Egyptian peasant who farms and milks cows. It came to the attention of authorities at Al-Azhar University, described as "the government’s highest authority on religion", who then petitioned the courts, who ruled that "Freedom of the press ... should be used responsibly and not touch on the basic foundations of Egyptian society, and family, religion and morals". Over the past two decades, Al-Azhar University censored more than 196 texts.
In the late 1800s/early 1900s Egypt had journals in both Arabic and French. In much of the 1800s Alexandria served as the centre of Egyptian journalism. Circa the mid-to-late 1800s many famous literary journals were established in Alexandria, but moved to Cairo by the 1890s. By the late 1800s the makeup of Alexandria-based publications increasingly focused on culture while publications focused on political matters moved to Cairo. During that decade the city had twelve newspapers, and there were three new general culture journals that decade. By the 1890s the number of newspapers had increased to 39, and 19 new general cultural journals appeared that decade. In 1899 Al-Ahram moved to Cairo, and by circa 1901 publications in Cairo made up 65% of the total while ones based in Alexandria had declined to 28%.
The period before the creation of Egyptian political parties saw the creation of many women's periodicals and press, from the year 1892, with the creation of the first women's journal al-Fatah by Hind Nawfal, originally published in Alexandria, until through the first world war, an average of 1 new journal was being created each year. For Nawal, this was an opportunity to write for and about women and to defend their right's, express her views and discuss their duties. Editions of the journal were published continually for two years, after which she stopped publications.
Examples of other significant periodicals include Muslim women's journal Tarqiyat al-Mar'a which was first published in 1908, which fought for women's rights which had already been granted by Islam and argued against the mixing of genders and for veiling. In the same year, Malaka Sa-d first published al-jins al-lateef, a Coptic journal dedicated to the issues Coptic women faced, it published a diverse set of female editors.
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Mass media in Egypt
Mass media in Egypt are highly influential in Egypt and in the Arab World, attributed to its large audience and its historical TV and film industry supplies to the Arab-speaking world.
A period of ease on media marked the last years of Hosni Mubarak's rule, but since the 2011 revolution and 2013 coup d'état, Reporters Without Borders said "successive governments have tried to control the media and have not hesitated to impose measures restricting journalists' freedom," in 2016, and "the situation of media freedom in Egypt is extremely worrying" in 2017. While state media is "almost always loyal to President al-Sisi," and most pro-Islamist media have been closed, or now broadcast from abroad, journalists and human rights defenders are denied access to parts of the Sinai region and are obliged to report only the official version of terrorist attacks under the terrorism law that was adopted in August 2015. Following the 2011 revolution, acquisitions of media outlets and private newspapers by businessmen linked to the government started surfacing, initially with close ties to the newly in-power Muslim Brotherhood, businessmen then shifted in 2013 with the deposition of former President Mohamed Morsi to Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's support and regime. In 2016 the takeover by businessmen linked to the government and intelligence services escalated rapidly; and the regime's domination of the media is affecting even pro-government media. In addition to those acquisitions, the government tapped into the market with a major new TV network named "DMC" with a range of news, sports, and entertainment channels changing the landscape beyond the "official" outlets that lost their credibility, DMC also imposed a de facto monopoly over filming where other privately owned TV channels are denied access. On the internet, Egypt banned at least 62 websites in a crackdown in June 2017, including Daily Sabah, Medium, Al Jazeera, The Huffington Post, and Mada Masr along with opposition websites, like El-Badil, for containing material that "support terrorism and extremism as well as publish lies", that blockade was followed by a growing list of censorship circumvention and VPN providing websites in addition to the blockade of OpenVPN protocol on a national scale. The crackdown was condemned by the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), Mada Masr, and by the Index on Censorship. The ATFE stated that "the blocking of websites violates the Egyptian Constitution". The country saw a period of increasing freedom from governmental control during the last years of ousted president Hosni Mubarak. Although Freedom of the media is guaranteed in the constitution, and the government was increasingly respecting this, however many laws still remain that restrict this right. Back in 2005, and after the Egyptian presidential election, Ahmed Selim, office director for Information Minister Anas al-Fiqi, declared the era of "free, transparent and independent Egyptian media".
The printing press was first introduced to Egypt by Napoleon Bonaparte during his French Campaign in Egypt and Syria. He brought with his expedition a French, Arabic, and Greek printing press, which were far superior in speed, efficiency and quality than the nearest presses used in Istanbul. In the Middle East, Africa, India, and even much of Eastern Europe and Russia, printing was a minor, specialized activity until at least the 18th century. From about 1720, the Mutaferrika Press in Istanbul produced substantial amounts of printing, of which some Egyptian clerics were aware at the time. Juan Cole reports that "Bonaparte was a master of what we would now call spin, and his genius for it is demonstrated by reports in Arabic sources that several of his more outlandish allegations were actually taken seriously in the Egyptian countryside."
The written press is very diverse in Egypt, with over 600 newspapers, journals, and magazines. However these are owned mostly or in some way by the government, the opposition or other political parties. Several journalists from private newspapers have been arrested and jailed for breaching laws that prohibit criticism of the President, state institutions and foreign leaders, or "putting out false news harming the reputation and interests of the country". However, unlike many of Egypt's regional counterparts, criticism of the government in general does take place, after amendments to existing press laws in 2006 which however still criminalise libel.
In 2009 an Egyptian court revoked the publishing license for Ibdaa ("creativity"), a small-circulation literary magazine, for publishing a "blasphemous" poem by Hilmi Salem called "On the balcony of Leila Murad" in which God is likened to an Egyptian peasant who farms and milks cows. It came to the attention of authorities at Al-Azhar University, described as "the government’s highest authority on religion", who then petitioned the courts, who ruled that "Freedom of the press ... should be used responsibly and not touch on the basic foundations of Egyptian society, and family, religion and morals". Over the past two decades, Al-Azhar University censored more than 196 texts.
In the late 1800s/early 1900s Egypt had journals in both Arabic and French. In much of the 1800s Alexandria served as the centre of Egyptian journalism. Circa the mid-to-late 1800s many famous literary journals were established in Alexandria, but moved to Cairo by the 1890s. By the late 1800s the makeup of Alexandria-based publications increasingly focused on culture while publications focused on political matters moved to Cairo. During that decade the city had twelve newspapers, and there were three new general culture journals that decade. By the 1890s the number of newspapers had increased to 39, and 19 new general cultural journals appeared that decade. In 1899 Al-Ahram moved to Cairo, and by circa 1901 publications in Cairo made up 65% of the total while ones based in Alexandria had declined to 28%.
The period before the creation of Egyptian political parties saw the creation of many women's periodicals and press, from the year 1892, with the creation of the first women's journal al-Fatah by Hind Nawfal, originally published in Alexandria, until through the first world war, an average of 1 new journal was being created each year. For Nawal, this was an opportunity to write for and about women and to defend their right's, express her views and discuss their duties. Editions of the journal were published continually for two years, after which she stopped publications.
Examples of other significant periodicals include Muslim women's journal Tarqiyat al-Mar'a which was first published in 1908, which fought for women's rights which had already been granted by Islam and argued against the mixing of genders and for veiling. In the same year, Malaka Sa-d first published al-jins al-lateef, a Coptic journal dedicated to the issues Coptic women faced, it published a diverse set of female editors.