web analytics
May 21, 2013 /12 Sivan, 5773
At a Glance ▼
InDepth
Sponsored Post
jumping Following a Passion for Sports to Israel

In Israel, a new five month scholarship program being offered to young aspiring athletes – one of them could be you.



Egypt: There Goes the Free Media

tell a friend
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi (R) meeting with Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi (R) meeting with Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.
Photo Credit: Mohammed al-Ostaz/Flash90

http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.co.il/2012/08/egypt-there-goes-free-media.html

So can you write “Arab Spring,” free elections, democracy in Egypt, and such things 100 times? Might this be somewhat in contradiction to the fact that:

Muslim Brotherhood President al-Mursi has just named the editors of the top Egyptian newspaper and other media outlets. They are state-owned, you know, there are a half-dozen good little independent newspapers.

But one of them, al-Destour (ironically meaning, The Constitution) has just had a full issue seized on charges of “fueling sedition” and “harming the president through phrases and wording punishable by law.” We know this through a report in the Middle East News Agency, the state owned monopoly.

And what was the inflammatory report? That the Brotherhood was going to seize power and that liberals and the army should join together to stop the country from being turned into an Islamist regime.

Seems to me that if it weren’t true there wasn’t any need to confiscate the issue, right? After all, everybody would have seen that it wouldn’t happen and all would have shared a good laugh!

Other columnists are charging that the Brotherhood is trying to turn their newspapers into reliable house organs rather than let them be free.

Reminds me of a personal experience I had in Cairo over thirty years ago. An al-Ahram newspaper editor was well-known for being the highest-ranking Christian in journalism. I went to see him and mentioned that I knew he was a Christian. He launched into a long lecture about how wonderfully Christians were treated in Egypt, there was no discrimination against them, etc.

After a while I mentioned that I heard he had been on the television the previous evening but I had missed it. For no particular reason, I just asked, “How long were you on, fifteen minutes?”

Without missing a beat, he shot back: “Fifteen minutes! You’d think they’d let a Copt be on for fifteen minutes! I was on for three minutes.”

Reported by me word by word as it happened.

tell a friend

About the Author: Professor Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. See the GLORIA/MERIA site at www.gloria-center.org.


You might also be interested in:


no comments

You must log in to post a comment.

No Responses to “Egypt: There Goes the Free Media”

  1. Nathalie Blackham says:
    August 12, 2012 at 8:41 PM

    here goes the free press… in Egypt…

  2. Chaiya Eitan says:
    August 12, 2012 at 9:34 PM

    Wonder what Hillary will say about this….

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Current Top Story
Ultra Orthodox Jewish youths studying religious texts at a Yeshiva in Jerusalem
Haredi Tycoons Raising $100 Million to Replace Lapid’s Budget Cuts
Latest Indepth Stories
The Gospel according to the Palestinian Authority
News → Antisemitism

How far the PA will go to present the lie as the truth and the truth as a lie? Its claim that Jesus was a Palestinian is old hat. But now the “resurrection” also refers to “the Palestinian state.”

Dreamland bully
InDepth → Columns → Daniel Greenfield

The progressive consolidation imagines that organization can contain the messier side of man.

Russian Yakhont missile
InDepth → Op-Eds

The Russian Yakhont missiles already delivered to Syria threaten Israel Navy ships carrying out vital missions in the Mediterranean.

Eid al-Adha celebrated in Moscow
InDepth → Op-Eds

Islamism represents the transformation of Islamic faith into a political ideology.

InDepth → Analysis → Rubin Reports

America could be said to be building a united front against Iran, but at what price?

InDepth → Op-Eds

The Japanese do not feel the need to apologize to Muslims for the negative way in which they relate to Islam.

InDepth → Columns → Khaled Abu Toameh

Palestinian youths from Hebron, though, who met with Israelis near Bethlehem to share their problems and insights have been forced to issue a statement distancing themselves from the meeting.

InDepth → Columns → Daniel Greenfield

Benghazi isn’t likely to keep Hillary out of the Democratic field in 2016, but after 2008, she is justifiably paranoid.

InDepth → Op-Eds

The contractors received the land at a bargain basement price, moved the prices up to 1.8 million NIS and pocketed one million NIS per apartment.

InDepth → Op-Eds

Many of my fellow college students are quick to voice their acceptance of their LGBT friends, but they turn up their noses and frown slightly when they speak of a Hasid.

InDepth → Columns → America's Rabbi / Shmuley Boteach

The growing revelations that the Obama State Department watered down public statements on the attack in order to cleanse them of any mention of al Qaeda and terrorism is a travesty.

InDepth → Op-Eds

We must confront Islamist groups with what Prime Minister David Cameron referred to as “muscular liberalism.”

InDepth → Columns → Khaled Abu Toameh

Al-Qaradawi’s visit and statements also serve as a reminder that the Israeli-Arab conflict is centered, more than ever, around religion.

InDepth → Columns → Louis Rene Beres

Everyone who reads newspapers should know at least one thing. Threats to annihilate Israel have always been unremarkable. Almost never, it seems, have Israel’s existential enemies sought any reason for concealment.

InDepth → Interviews and Profiles

Mark Treyger, a candidate for city council in New York City’s 47th council district, met recently with the editorial board of The Jewish Press at the newspaper’s Boro Park office.

InDepth → Columns → Moshe Feiglin

Israel’s government did not want to liberate Jerusalem. Or to be more specific, the Labor and National Religious Party ministers did not want to liberate Jerusalem. “Who needs that whole Vatican?” Defense Minister Moshe Dayan explained at the time.

More Articles from Barry Rubin
Iranian Shiites flagellate themselves du
InDepth → Analysis → Rubin Reports

America could be said to be building a united front against Iran, but at what price?

The Shiite blood festival.
InDepth → Analysis → Rubin Reports

Even Muslim Brotherhood think-tanks have said that the Shia, and especially Iran, are more dangerous threats than is Israel.

InDepth → Analysis → Rubin Reports

The Obama Administration has turned to Islamists in the belief that they are best suited to guard US interests in the Middle East.

InDepth → Analysis → Rubin Reports

Obama wants Americans to believe that government is only the sum total of their efforts together. But that is nonsense.

InDepth → Analysis → Rubin Reports

The Palestinian Authority is in a box of its own making. It cannot win militarily against Israel, nor will it engage in serious diplomacy with Israel.

InDepth → Analysis → Rubin Reports

Perhaps if Western states studied its policies rather than endlessly criticized them they might gain from the experience.

InDepth → Analysis → Rubin Reports

In other words, to speak in English in Washington to make the Americans happy is one thing; to do things in practice is something else entirely.

InDepth → Analysis → Rubin Reports

When it comes to terrorism, many quarters of American society act as if race, religion and national background are taboo.

    Latest Poll

    Which is the most beautiful location in Jerusalem?









    View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...

Printed from: http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/analysis/rubin-reports/egypt-there-goes-the-free-media/2012/08/12/

Scan this QR code to visit this page online:

Related posts:

  1. Plague of Locusts Returns to Egypt
Close