As 2011 comes to an end, Egypt’s state media continues to act as the ruling regime’s mouthpiece, despite calls for reform from some employees.
State TV was blasted for its coverage during the 18-day uprising, when it would focus its cameras on views of empty bridges and the Nile; meters away, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians were protesting to demand the ousting of President Mubarak.
“Egyptian state media performed notably farcically during the uprising, much like they always did, as the clowns that paraded around the corrupt Mubarak regime,” said Amani Ismail, assistant professor at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the American University in Cairo.
In the last weeks of December, and since the appointment of General Ahmed Anis as the new information minister, state TV and radio have renewed clampdowns on media freedoms, thereby raising doubts about whether the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) intends to follow through with its promises of reform. For presenting views critical of SCAF, one radio program was taken off the air and at least five state TV and radio presenters were referred to the state prosecution. To make matters worse, counter-revolutionary figures have been appointed to senior posts.
“We’re ending the year just like it started. It seems there is an organized plan to bring back state TV to its darkest days,” said Hedi Sameh, a director at the Nile News TV channel, the primary state-run news broadcaster.
Sameh told Egypt Independent that about 100 of the channel’s 125 crew signed a petition and sent it to Anis. In the petition, employees rejected Mubarak-loyalist Moataza Mahaba’s appointment as assistant manager of the channel. Mahaba has repeatedly insulted the revolution and protesters on social media websites, in addition to being a member of a Facebook group called the “25 January setback.”
“Since the beginning of the revolution… the same oppressive media policy has been imposed by the old regime. Lies, deception and falsification continue,” said Mohamed al-Molla, production manager at Nile Live TV and a member of the Maspero Revolutionaries Front.
“I’m prohibited from playing the revolution’s songs or any songs that mention the martyrs, and I can’t invite on air any journalists, celebrities, writers or public figures that support the revolution,” said Molla.
Radio Masr’s early morning show was taken off air a week ago and its presenter, Ziad Ali, was interrogated after he aired a program titled “They are Declaring War on the Revolution,” which criticized former Information Minister Osama Heikal. In another episode at the end of December, Ali defied instructions from senior management to ignore the killing of 17 protesters by military forces during clashes near the cabinet building in downtown Cairo.
“The ideology hasn’t changed. The Mubarak regime is still ruling,” said Ali.
Like Nile News, Radio Masr threatened to halt all its programs in the event that its early morning show did not resume.
The SCAF was aware of the importance of state media when it sent tanks to guard the Maspero state TV building, as it was among the first government buildings to be secured when soldiers were deployed on the streets on 28 January. Since that time, Maspero has resembled a military base. Barbed wire surrounds it, soldiers are positioned along the building’s corridors, and special security arrangements protect the information minister’s office.
General Ismail Etman, a SCAF member, told journalists on 12 October: “This is a word of truth: We don’t have any influence on state coverage. We don’t tell them what to cover and what not to cover. We don’t suppress opinions. The media is not politicized or militarized.”
His words came three days after state media was accused of deceptive coverage during the brutal crackdown on a protest at Maspero, in which 28 Coptic protesters were killed. During the clashes, state TV, headed at the time by Heikal, not only ignored the protesters’ deaths but falsely reported that three soldiers had died in the violence.
In March, a small revolutionary movement was born in Maspero. Calling for a purge of Mubarak-era senior officials, employees launched a sit-in by the news department and civil disobedience spread to other departments. In the end, Abdel Latif al-Manawy, the former head of the news department, was forced to resign from his post.
“We’re trying as much as we can to attract people’s attention so that they don’t accuse everyone inside the building of being a traitor to the nation and media ethics. We want to send the message that the problem lies in the old-regime’s management,” said Mona al-Shayeb, presenter at Nile News.
While it remains uncertain whether these seeds of dissent will succeed in effecting change, one thing is clear: Their continued presence is an important achievement in the face of continued state media censorship.
