Again, there is media chaos. But the question remains: What media and what chaos?
I believe what we see on satellite media is not media chaos as much as political chaos. What we see is political indulgence, or rather political conflict and not professionalism.
Distorting the January revolution used to be indirect. Now it is blatant and deliberate. And talk shows are now pretending the revolution was but a conspiracy and a paid plot. We have also started to see attacks on President Sisi and conflicts here and there.
This is not professionalism, for many of those we see in the media are not media professionals in the first place. They belong to rival fronts in a political struggle.
I say this now as the media charter is still being prepared: Only competent media councils, and no other bodies, have the right to correct and bring to account any deviation from professionalism. This is the case all over the world.
More questions remain: Where is the nation state in all this? Is the state one entity or is it several entities represented in conflicting fronts? Is it really neutral and abiding only to the Constitution and the law?
How can the answer be affirmative if the Prosecutor General intervened to stop the implementation of a court order banning a certain program that broadcast interviews with citizens which was in a blatant violation of the rules?
How can the Prosecutor General intervene for something like this and not activate the law against illegal practice?
I am afraid the state, represented in the Prime Minister and his government, will continue to curb the media rather than establish regulations that maintain professionalism and self-restraint.
Political conflict is reflected in the media at a fateful moment where the media is being restructured and reorganized by a charter. It is a moment long awaited to consolidate the independence of the profession away from the state's power.
Will the media continue to be the victim of a political struggle that uses it as a weapon it will never abandon? Are we media professionals willing to miss the opportunity and go back another 30 years?
The press battled against Mubarak's imprisonment sentences in cases related to publishing. Are we now on the threshold of a new battle?
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
