On the Divide
Press Freedom at Risk in Egypt Hopes for press freedom were high after the 2011 revolution ousted Hosni Mubarak, led to an explosion of private media outlets, and set the country on a path to a landmark presidential election. But more than two years later, a deeply polarized Egyptian press has been battered by an…
On the Divide: Press Freedom at Risk in Egypt
1. Morsi’s Failures By Sherif Mansour In June 2012, three days before Mohamed Morsi was declared winner of the presidential election, Bassem Youssef, satirist and host of Egypt’s “Al-Bernameg,” defended the Muslim Brotherhood candidate during an appearance on Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show.” He asked the U.S. audience to give democracy in Egypt a chance.…
On the Divide: Press Freedom at Risk in Egypt
The Killing of Al-Hosseiny Abou Deif By Sherif Mansour The fatal shooting of El-Fagr reporter Al-Hosseiny Abou Deif during clashes between anti-government protesters and Muslim Brotherhood supporters outside the presidential palace last December seemed, at first blush, to fit a sadly familiar pattern: a journalist killed covering a political demonstration, the victim of a stray…
On the Divide: Press Freedom at Risk in Egypt
2. Military Censorship By Sherif Mansour A swarm of police vehicles converged on Media Production City moments after Gen. Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi announced on July 3 that Mohamed Morsi had been ousted. The compound outside Cairo is home to nearly every TV station in Egypt, but the police were targeting five particular stations that night: the…
On the Divide: Press Freedom at Risk in Egypt
NGO Case Criminalizes Human Rights Work By Jean-Paul Marthoz A criminal case that was launched under the previous transitional military government has cast a shadow over the current government, with its implications that international human rights and democracy workers are somehow foreign agents working against national security.
Manning case raises worries about chilling effect
New York, July 30, 2013–Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, whose leak of classified documents to the website WikiLeaks sparked a military court-martial that raised alarms about the chilling effect on the press, was convicted today on six counts of violating the Espionage Act, along with theft and other charges, but was acquitted of the most serious…
For journalist in Chhattisgarh, justice delayed, denied
New York, July 12, 2013–Indian authorities’ failure to proceed expeditiously in the prosecution of a freelance journalist is a miscarriage of justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The journalist, who has been held for almost two years without bail on anti-state charges, had exposed police wrongdoing in central Chhattisgarh state.
Al-Jazeera station raided, 3 others shut in Egypt
New York, July 3, 2013–Authorities in Egypt’s new military-run government raided Al-Jazeera’s Egyptian station today, disrupting its service, and shut down at least three stations supportive of Mohamed Morsi in a worrying series of moves that seemed designed to cut off coverage of pro-Morsi events, according to news accounts.