Egypt's press downgraded from 'partly free' to 'not free'

“Journalists are never supposed to become the story,” wrote Al-Jazeera correspondent Peter Greste, in a letter smuggled out of Cairo’s Tora Prison. Yet that is just what has happened to the award-winning Australian journalist, who was arrested along with two Egyptian colleagues, Mohamed Famy and Baher Mohamed, on 29 December.

The journalists have been detained for allegedly holding illegal meetings with the Muslim Brotherhood. The Islamist group, which until July’s military coup was the majority in the country’s democratically elected government, has been labelled a terrorist organisation by Egypt’s interim government.

Greste’s incarceration has made worldwide headlines, with even Barack Obama weighing in to call for his release. But it represents just the tip of the iceberg. Last week, Egyptian prosecutors said that they would be bringing criminal charges against 20 people working for the Al-Jazeera network. The journalists are charged with conspiring with a terrorist group and spreading false images, after they covered last year’s clashes in Tahrir Square. “We make no apologies for telling all sides of the story, and we stand by our journalism,” the broadcaster has said.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, there are currently at least 10 journalists imprisoned in Egypt with the real figure likely to be closer to 20 or 25. Such an unprecedented crackdown on Al-Jazeera, an international media organisation, does not bode well for the treatment of local journalists.

The clampdown on press freedom under the military-backed interim government has led some observers to draw unfavourable comparisons to the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in 2011.

The current regime’s clampdown began immediately after Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood president, was forced out of office on 3 July. That night, five television stations went off air: the Muslim Brotherhood-run Misr25, as well as four pro-Morsi Islamist stations. Police handcuffed around 200 employees and confiscated equipment and phones. Employees were interrogated, and 22 journalists imprisoned overnight on accusations of conspiring to overthrow the regime.

While this censorship was initially tightly focused on elements of the media that support the Brotherhood, there are signs – not least, the targeting of Al-Jazeera – that media across the political spectrum is under threat. The transitional government has spoken about introducing a journalistic code of ethics, which would in all likelihood enshrine intervention and oversight by the authorities.

At times, the clampdown on the media has bordered on the farcical. In early January, an advertisement for Vodafone Egypt featuring a popular puppet, Abla Fahita, triggered an investigation after allegations that the puppet was transmitting secret messages to Muslim Brotherhood supporters about a bomb attack. A Facebook page supporting the Egyptian security apparatus and calling for the puppet masters to be arrested quickly gained 600,000 followers. But despite the absurdity, this gives some indication of how polarized a setting Egypt has become. This intense antagonism between pro- and anti-government forces plays its own part in undermining unbiased reporting of events. International journalists reporting on events in Cairo have spoken of the risk of mob violence from angry crowds accusing them of an affiliation with Al-Jazeera or with terrorism.

Freedom House has downgraded Egypt’s ranking from “partly free” to “not free”. It said that this was “due to officially tolerated campaigns to intimidate journalists, increased efforts to prosecute reporters and commentators for insulting the political leadership or defaming religion, and intensified polarization of the pro- and anti-Muslim Brotherhood press, which reduced the availability of balanced coverage.”

While the situation has escalated under the transitional government, press freedom was already on the slide under Morsi. His government issued a decree in August banning the pretrial detention of journalists, but it also repeatedly pursued critics on defamation charges. According to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, at least 24 criminal cases were filed for insulting the president during the six months after Morsi’s election. That is significantly more than under Egypt’s previous presidents. This no doubt contributed to the increasingly antagonistic and polarized atmosphere that prevails today.

Responding to growing international criticism, the Egyptian foreign minister said that the government was committed to “all peaceful ways of expression under the constitution and law”. He added that all media – including the international media – were “welcome”, but he stuck to the government’s defence of the crackdown by sayig that “it is no secret that Egypt faces a terrorist threat”.

In the letter sneaked out of Tora prison, Greste spoke of a change in his perspective. “I have sought, until now, to make the authorities understand that this is all a terrible mistake, that I’ve been caught in the middle of a political struggle that is not my own,” he wrote. “But after two weeks in prison it is now clear that this is a dangerous decision. It validates an attack not just on me and my two colleagues but on freedom of speech across Egypt.

“The prisons are overflowing with anyone who opposes or challenges the government. So our arrest is not a mistake, and as a journalist this IS my battle.”

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.