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Country Summary
The press is guardedly optimistic, following the government’s modest revisions to a series of restrictive articles of the penal codecollectively known as Law 93 of 1995. The law, which opposition journalists dubbed the “Press Assassination Law,” was the focus of a sustained, year-long campaign by Egyptian journalists and human rights activists, who lobbied strenuously against its draconian provisions. The bill imposed lengthy prison terms together with hefty fines for journalists convicted of libel and a host of other ill-defined publications crimes.
With the new amendments, the government repealed some of the more contentious articles of Law 93, including a provision granting authorities the right to detain journalists without charge. Cases involving libel of the president can still land journalists in preventive detention.
For the most part, however, the essence of Law 93 remains intact, and journalists continue to face imprisonment and heavy fines for their writing. In effect, the government’s revisions merely lessen the severity of penalties. For example, individuals charged with libel offenses face a maximum prison sentence of one year under the new amendmentsa slight improvement over the three-year sentences originally mandated under Law 93. In cases where journalists face accusations of libeling public officials, offenders may receive up to two years in prison. The revisions to the law lower the ceilings on monetary penalties in some cases, but they still range as high as £E20,000 (US$6,000) for each offense.
Journalists remain vulnerable to prosecution under a host of highly interpretive charges, including “inciting hatred,” “violating public morality,” and “harming the national economy”charges that carry one-to-two-year prison sentences and heavy fines. Egyptian authorities continue to use such rubrics to prosecute journalists. For example, Mustafa Bakri, the former editor in chief of the Liberal Party organ, Al-Ahrar, was charged along with his brother Mahmoud with defamation in a suit brought by former Minister of Religious Endowments Muhammad Mahgoub. Both men were covicted in November and ordered to pay a fine of £E5,000 (US$1,500) and compensation of £E10,000 (US$3,000).
When not prosecuting journalists for their writing, authorities were active in censoring a variety of local publications. Ministry of Information officials continued their harassment of the English-language weekly Middle East Times. In October, the ministry banned one of the paper’s editions because of an article that commented on President Hosni Mubarak’s 15 years in power, and censors forced the paper’s editors to remove or alter individual articles on at least eight occasions. Another favorite target of government censors was the Arabic weekly Al-Dustour. On at least two occasions, authorities prevented the paper’s distribution, without giving a reason for their actions.
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