The media impresario Hishām Qāsim recently presented a lecture at the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo. In the lecture Qāsim narrated the recent history of the Egyptian press industry and described the current debates, dilemmas and developments governing the media sector.
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On Thursday October 1, 2009 Hishām Qāsim, founder of the now defunct Cairo Times and formerly editor-in-chief of al-Misrī al-Yawm, delivered a lecture on the state of the press in Egypt. He spoke for about forty minutes at the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo, and afterwards fielded questions from the audience. The following is a summary of his presentation.
Prior to the revolution of 1952 Egypt had a strong tradition of journalism with independent newspapers driven by a market economy. President Nāsir, however, institutionalized the press, giving newspaper licenses only to his close confidents. He also established an official position of state censor, and all reporting was in essence the mouthpiece of the executive. Upon Nāsir’s death al-Sādāt assumed the presidency and continued this policy until 1974, when he yielded to pressure to open up the Egyptian media. Officially, all censorship ceased, but only among the newspapers which were able to obtain a license. While this process was made subject to sensible regulations, unlike Nāsir’s closed circle policy, the procedures stated no timetable for a decision, and the cumbersome workings of bureaucracy achieved much the same effect.
When Sādāt’s decision coincided with his allowance of opposition political parties in 1977, granting each a party newspaper, independent journalists found another way to proceed. With licenses near-impossible to obtain domestically, they would travel to Cyprus, which provided the easiest path to international registration of a newspaper, and then open up a regional office in Egypt. It was not too long after, however, that al-Sādāt’s government then realized the journalistic evasion, and championed a censorship of all foreign press, to protect Egypt from corrupting “evil influences”. The licensed press, meanwhile, enjoyed almost complete freedom to print what they wished, liable only to litigation in the courts according to normal Egyptian law.
The situation was not ideal, though, for the official press continued to serve as a mouthpiece of the government, and the political parties were propaganda machines for party interest. In time, they even became co-opted by the state as the parties found it beneficial to cooperate, often in exchange for political payoffs. The independent ‘Cypriot’ press fared no better, however, having accepted an implicit accord with the government. In exchange for allowing a scrutinizing of content, the government would overlook the other aspects of running a newspaper. With no oversight concerning legal regulations, the press fell into a state of corruption. Budget funding sources were kept secret, concealing the interests of major contributors. Circulation figures were never verifiable, leading to fraud with the advertising industry. Eventually, Cyprus discovered they were being taken advantage of, and took legal measures to shut down the entire sector.
President Mubārak has basically continued the policy of his predecessor, though in 2004 he was pushed by the Bush administration to further liberalize the press. Since then has been established al-Dustūr, al-Misrī al-Yawm, and others, and most recently al-Shuruq in February of 2009, which is looking to overwhelm the market by printing more pages and paying a higher salary. While it is too early to gauge the long term success of these efforts, it is clear that the newspaper industry is in decline. This is most clear in the case of the national paper, al-Ahrām. Prior to the recent changes the government pressed a heavy hand on the market to promote sales. With their withdrawal, coupled with the proliferation of multiple other journalistic options, sales have declined dramatically. Yet the newspaper is still bloated; al-Ahrām employs 17,000 people, but only 1,000 journalists, and receives a 0.9 billion LE subsidy each year. Newspapers which run a better fiscal program are also suffering substantial drop-offs in circulation.
These economic problems suffered by the press in Egypt are exasperated by the emergence of the internet. Only one million newspapers are sold daily to a population of 80 million, yet there are 17 million daily internet users, and the Egypt page on Facebook has 486,000 members. Whereas the press is very weak in providing analysis of the news, Egyptian bloggers dissect the events within half an hour of their occurrence. The trouble is that the field of investigative journalism is almost non-existent in Egypt, and has been as such certainly since the time of Nāsir. Though educational and foreign institutions provide training for journalists, the old guard editors of the major newspapers feel threatened by the modern methods, and marginalize its proponents. The result is a boring presentation of what everyone already knows; why then in a difficult economy should anyone buy a newspaper?
Yet the press which does exist and is currently viable does not provide healthy journalism either. The major newspapers are dominated by individual wealthy businessmen, who treat the paper as an extension of their empire. Hishām Qāsim recently resigned as editor-in-chief of al- al-Misrī al-Yawm over his refusal to overlook the conflicts of interest between the paper and Najīb Sāwīris , who owns a 28% stake. His earlier paper, The Cairo Times, was forced into bankruptcy when his advertisers informed him they would no longer use his newspaper, under pressure from other wealthy businessmen to isolate him. He is currently seeking investors for a new newspaper which will limit individual ownership to 10% of the business. Such joint-stock ventures, he declares, are rare in Egypt.
Yet despite all of the above, Egypt is in his opinion the number one country in the Arab World for freedom of the press. In no other country, save Lebanon, can one criticize the president with impunity. The issue with Lebanon is that the press is entirely sectarian. While Morocco and Tunisia have excellent writing and journalistic skills, they suffer an official censorship that mutes their successes. The Gulf States, meanwhile, have a wealth of resources invested in the trappings of the press, but their internal workings are weak. Only in Egypt do all these factors come together. Still, this is not a celebrated freedom; President Mubārak has tried to roll back much of his liberalization program, but has been denied by the courts. The pressure came from international actors, but the reforms were internalized quickly and have become a positive mark on the Egyptian human rights landscape. All the same, the future of journalism is cloudy due to the market changes accelerated by economic conditions and the slow adjustment of the Egyptian press to incorporate the open newsroom of multiple media outlets. The political issues loom larger still, as Mubārak has declared he will not run again for president in the upcoming 2012 elections. Nevertheless, it is hoped that Egypt can cling to its intellectual heritage and navigate the changes, providing the region with leadership in the world of journalism.
