As the revolution unraveled last year, many protesters and slogans in Tahrir Square targeted the much-reviled state media as often as the corrupt Mubarak regime it represented.

The toppling of the government promised a new era of unprecedented freedom, an Egyptian blend of glasnost (openness) that opened media channels and galvanized civil society in Russia and much of Eastern Europe in the 1990s.

Aspiring journalists also became enthralled with an idea of joining the new era of Egypt’s media. “It became a more worthy cause, the idea that we had a revolution and media can play a more important role,” says Naila Hamdy, professor of journalism at American University in Cairo. “We definitely saw a surge in journalism students.”

But Egyptian media has not followed a uniform path since the revolution and has become more polarized and politicized. As traditional, previously state-controlled media continues to produce content favorable to the ruling regime, others embrace the revolutionary ideals of the streets.

A new media era
The ouster of Mubarak was undoubtedly the main accomplishment of the January uprising, which unleashed a new era of opportunities and challenges across all media platforms.

“The whole world has changed,” says Hamdy. “One year ago you could not say the word ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ [in the media].” The media coverage of the Muslim Brotherhood, a growing political force, has also changed dramatically. “Before, they were a victim, but now I am free to criticize [them],” says Mustafa El Ghamry of Al-Ahram newspaper.

The television sector enjoyed a renaissance on par with their regional counterparts across the Middle East. The permit processes for private channels eased and more than a dozen new channels launched since the revolution began. Despite precarious economic conditions, these new ventures found external and domestic investors hoping to capitalize on a growing audience and demand for a new, freer type of programming.

Journalists at iconic, institutional newspapers, such as Al-Ahram, were able to breathe more freely and choose content for the first time in decades. Al-Ahram, which was established in 1875, occupies a Stalinist-looking headquarters in downtown Cairo. The monumental building that towers over the neighborhood boasts an old-school newsroom with rows of wooden desks and vigilant security leftover from the previous regime. “Al-Ahram used to be one of the main propaganda tools of the Mubarak regime and [Hosni] Mubarak himself,” says El Ghamry.
The massive organization, which spans several Arabic and English language publications and a printing unit, is still reinventing itself and its place in the new Egypt.
Predictably, social media has seen some of the most dramatic growth over the past year. Facebook, has 8.3 million registered users in Egypt, which makes the country Facebook’s 22nd largest market globally. As many traditional media outlets struggled to keep up with rapidly changing events or shut down altogether early in 2011, millions of Egyptians flocked to Facebook to exchange YouTube videos and keep up with current events. In September 2011, Facebook registered 104.1% growth over the last year according to the Inside Facebook Gold report.

Media wars
As media coverage diversified, a certain culture of fear-mongering has emerged as well with many media channels giving in to their ideological leanings to serve a larger political agenda.

El Ghamry says Egypt’s liberal media is guilty of following a political agenda as well in portraying Muslim Brotherhood as radical by taking quotes out of context for example.

“This is not an accurate portrayal of the [Muslim Brotherhood],” he says. “Islamist channels do the same to liberals.”
The most recent clashes between the protesters and the security police revealed the difference in coverage between the old state-controlled media and the new independent channels.

The state channels suggested the protesters were paid off by third parties and generally provided more favorable coverage to the military regime. State TV reported Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi paid condolences to the wounded.
Meanwhile, the independent channels focused on the police abuses, harassment and attacks on protesters.

Remaining challenges
Journalists face many obstacles: the ongoing political pressure from the military leadership that continues to play an important role, crackdown on freedom of speech and prominent bloggers, shutdowns of several channels as well as the more obscure, but no less important, perils of self-censorship.

“The Mubarak government frequently used overly broad provisions in the penal code to crack down on criticism of the government’s policies and human rights record, trying editors, opposition leaders, and activists on charges of ‘insulting the president’ or ‘insulting public institutions’,” according to Human Rights Watch. “The military government and courts are today using the same provisions.” The Emergency Law, which was enacted after the revolution, remains in force and provides a legal backing for these provisions.

In September, the Emergency Law was expanded to include “intentionally spreading false information” as grounds for invoking emergency law provisions. “This expansion could allow for the detention without charge or trial of activists, election monitors or journalists who publish information the authorities consider to be ‘false’,” according to researchers at Human Rights Watch.

In the most recent protests against the military rule, at least 35 journalists were assaulted and beaten according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) report.

The role of secret police has diminished, but remains controversial as their new mandate remains vague after the fall of the Mubarak regime.
In July 2010, Ahmed Bahgat, owner of the satellite channel Dream TV told independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, in which he has a stake about the shortcomings of the channel’s independence.

“If I get a phone call telling me to shut down Dream TV, I will do so. What can we do? Are we going to fight the state? We can’t,” Bahgat said.
The newfound freedom and relative ease for acquiring permits for private channels turned out to be short-lived when the Ministry of Information announcecd it would stop issuing licenses for private satellite TV channels on September 12.

A year after the revolution began, several channels have been shut down by the military government, including the closing of Qatar-based Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr in early September. In a Twitter post, Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr said Egyptian authorities stormed its Cairo office and assaulted its employees. The minister of information then said it was shut down for “disregarding” the law.

Others, such as Channel 25, have closed temporarily in response to Maspero violence in October.
There were several reports of confiscations of several newspapers throughout the years. The Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression and the Support for Information Technology Center reported the state-run newspaper, Rose al-Youssef and one of privately-owned Sawt al-Umma had issues confiscated earlier last year.
Intimidation and pressure tactics were familiar features of the Mubarak regime, which for many have remained in full force.
Blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad, who was originally sentenced in March, has now received a two-year prison sentence and a fine for insulting the military. “Sanad, who was subjected to the inherently arbitrary proceedings of a military tribunal, should not have been imprisoned in the first place,” says Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator.
The negative reaction to these developments is much more intense because the expectations for a free media are higher.
“These are very draconian measures, it’s worse than before the revolution,” says Hamdy. “But I don’t think it will be that way forever, the country is still transitioning.”

Self-censorship
Traditional journalists are not used to being truly free in Egypt, with many citing self-censorship as a major issue. “The journalists who used to work for the regime for years, they create restrictions for themselves,” El Ghamry says. “This is a big problem actually.”

The December 1 distribution of 20,000 copies of an English-language weekly publication, Egypt Independent, was pulled at the last moment due to an apparent self-censorship by the newspaper’s editor according to staff reports. The editor-in-chief, Magdi El-Gallad, made the call due to an opinion piece by US historian Robert Springborg that was critical of the military and suggested dissent within the military ranks.

“Many in the military resent the reputation of their institution being abused by the Field Marshal  [Hussein Tantawi] and his 19 colleagues on the SCAF,” Springborg wrote in his opinion piece. The incident highlights the ongoing media challenge in covering the military, which continues to hold a de facto leadership role in the country’s transition period.

For many, the revolution did not reach state TV, which is paid through taxpayer funding. “There is no revolution inside, it’s still the same management, the same people who used to be in the National Democratic Party,” El Ghamry says.

The bird out of the cage
Many journalists are hopeful that the hard-earned media freedoms are here to stay. “It’s very hard to control the media,” says El Ghamry. “The bird is out of the cage; it’s not easy to catch it and put it back in the cage.”

El Ghamry argues a new media law is necessary to level the playing field for the new media outlets, so that public interest is preserved. “It’s not only about the law, it’s about the revolution’s intentions, if they want deep changes that people wanted.”

To El Ghamry, as well as many of his colleagues, true press freedom is a process. “It’s a problem of generations, we need a new generation to enact the changes that every Egyptian hoped to enact,” he says. “Huge changes really need some time to be completed.” bt