June 28, 2003
Media Monitor Media Freedom in 2003 UAE Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain Saudi Arabia Egypt Internet Freedom
Global tensions, lack of democracy keep Gulf media cowed
Human rights violations increased in North Africa and the Middle East in 2002 as governments used the fight against terrorism as an excuse to step up repression. A UN Development Programme (UNDP) report in July reached the damning conclusion that the Arab world had fewer freedoms than any other region of the world at the end of the 1990s, coming bottom when scored for civil liberties, political rights, independent media and other yardsticks.
Attacks on press freedom there often stemmed from the major balancing act Arab regimes have to perform - of satisfying public opinion by yielding to pressure from some Islamist elements (in the government or the opposition) while reassuring Western countries that action will be taken against terrorists. Most of them also bolster their authority, and thus their interests (since they know they have no democratic legitimacy), by cracking down on most opposition activity. They try to focus the attention of their people on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the hope they will forget about major internal problems such as poverty, corruption and repression of minorities.
The Arab world has been accused of every crime in the book since the 11 September attacks in the United States, so is keen to improve its image. At a conference on the Arab media, held in Dubai in late April, Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League, called for a unified Arab strategy on information matters. "We simply must face the West with a new mentality and modern means to counter this campaign," he said.
The conference also proposed countering the well-oiled propaganda machine of Israel and the United States. Alongside The Voice of America, which Arabs do not listen to much because they see it as too pro-Israeli, the US in 2002 set up Radio Sawa, a radio aiming at a young Arab audience. It began broadcasting in March in Kuwait, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. It dropped news programmes but continued to broadcast the speeches of President George W. Bush and US secretary of state Colin PowellIn mid-June, Arab information ministers meeting in Cairo allotted $22.5 million to set up a news monitoring centre that would counter anti-Arab statement and produce TV programmes in Hebrew and English for Israel and other foreign audiences. The ministers were tempted to criticise the Arab world's most popular TV station, Al-Jazeera, which every day, more and more, breaches the taboos in the region on discussing various subjects. They accused it of giving Israel's point of view and some suggested it be punished. This was not done in the end but in subsequent months Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan forbade the station, sometimes known as "the Arab World's CNN", to report on certain topics.
In the spring, a serious diplomatic spat broke out between Jordan and Qatar, where the station is based, after a Palestinian lecturer at a US university said on the station's programme "Opposite Direction" that Jordan had adopted a pro-Israeli policy.
Against the backcloth of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Arab media stepped up its attacks on the Jewish state with the help of anti-Semitic commentary. At the end of the year, in an effort to "calm" the Americans, Osama el-Baz, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's political adviser, wrote in Egypt's biggest daily paper, Al-Ahram, criticising the Arab media for their anti-Jewish line. He called on everyone, especially Egyptians (some of the worst offenders), not to be blinded by racism.
In the streets, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict raged on and the press was one of its victims. The media was free and independent in Israel but in the Palestinian Territories the Israeli army used excessive and undue force against journalists. Three journalists - an Italian and two Palestinians - were killed while doing their job, to all appearances by the Israeli army. The army's attitude, deliberate administrative delays and fierce attacks by Israeli officials on the international media were all part of a strategy of harassing journalists, Palestinian or foreign.
Weakened and disorganised, the Palestinian Authority lost some of its capacity to hamper the work of journalists but was still keen to control its image. Its security services as well as armed Hamas militants several times physically attacked journalists.
Despite their individual characteristics, the region's governments shared at least one - the stifling of the media. The methods ranged from authoritarian (Iraq, Iran and Tunisia) to more subtle pressure, as seen in Morocco and Algeria. Satellite TV stations and the Internet were a real breath of fresh air for Arabs but their governments saw them as a threat and tried to control them. Some managed to (such as Tunisia), while others did so with difficulty (Iran). However, satellite TV is still expensive, so most people do not see it.
The Arab countries still had no independent legal systems in 2002 and were consequently noted for arbitrary arrests (Iran), unjustified trials (Tunisia), legal farces (Lebanon) and special courts (Syria). Many countries were still living under states of emergency (Sudan, Algeria, Egypt, Israel and Syria) and abused these powers to arrest journalists and ban newspapers. The media were at the mercy of score-settling and regime dissensions, as seen in the shutdown of a TV station in Lebanon, the arrest in Syria of a journalist of the paper Al Hayat and newspaper closures and arrests of journalists in Iran.
The shackles of censorship are loosening a little each year, helped by the growth of the Internet and satellite TV, but many taboos remain. Heads of state and members of royal families are still untouchable. Discussion of Islamist opposition is always a risky subject. In many countries, the Islamist media was banned or strictly controlled (Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Algeria and Egypt). But the religious question is still a sensitive one and many journalists in Iran were prosecuted for "undermining Islam."
Preparations for a war on Iraq, which some Arab regimes were expected to cooperate with, was a very delicate topic. A report that Syria was making arrangements to receive Iraqi refugees led to the arrest of the Al Hayat correspondent in Damascus. The increasing debate about corruption showed willingness by Arab governments to reassure their Western funding sources. Human rights were also a touchy subject, as in Tunisia, where a journalist had to resign after writing about prison conditions.
The number of journalists arrested during the year was about the same as in 2001, but twice as many media (80) were censored, suspended, seized or banned. The record for censored newspapers was held by Iran, where at least 20 were suspended. Israel had the record for journalists arrested, including more than a score of Palestinians. At the end of the year, Iran was holding the most journalists in prison (10), many serving long sentences. And throughout the year, physical attacks, surveillance and threats were routine.
No journalist was killed in the region during 2002. While many regimes frequently tortured prisoners, this did not include journalists, except for Tunisia, where a cyber-dissident was tortured under interrogation.
Gulf Media Monitor United Arab Emirates - Area : 83,600 sq.km.
- Population : 2,654,000
- Language : Arabic
- Type of state : federation of seven emirates
- Head of state : Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan (Abu Dhabi)
- Head of government : Sheikh Makhtum bin Rashid al-Makhtum (Dubai)United Arab Emirates
The opening in 2001 of a tax-free zone for the media in Dubai has not greatly changed the government's tight control of the press. The Arabic-language media has less freedom than its English-language counterparts. As everywhere in the Gulf, self-censorship is routine.
Dubai wants to be a regional and international service centre for the media, competing with two other such centres in Egypt and Jordan. Reuters, Zen TV and Middle East Business News and others have set up shop in Dubai's Media City, which in theory provides a tax-free environment and freedom of expression. Dubai's large international airport is an added attraction for foreign media.
In April 2002, the Arab satellite TV station Middle East Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), after a decade in London, completed a move to Media City. Its chief, Ali Al-Hudaithi, said it was not just a change of location but also a technological leap and a cost reduction of nearly 30 per cent in the first year and more after that.
The UAE constitution guarantees press freedom but the content and editorial line of newspapers is still strictly controlled. The foreign press is censored before going on sale. The written media, officially private companies, are in fact subsidised by the government. A 1998 law requires all publications to register with the authorities and lists the topics they are allowed to handle. Journalists censor what they write about domestic matters, the royal families, religion and relations with neighbouring countries.
Two journalists physically attacked
Reporter Abdelhay Mohamed and photographer Mohamed Omran Shahed, of the daily paper Al-Ittihad, were attacked on 24 December by two employees of a construction firm. Several dozen Egyptian immigrant labourers had complained to the paper about their living and working conditions, saying they had no contracts, had not been paid for a long time and were forced to live in tiny rooms.
The paper sent the two journalists to investigate. While they were taking photos of the cramped living quarters, two of the firm's employees attacked them, tearing up the reporter's notebook and smashing the photographer's camera. The national journalists' association denounced the incident on 26 December as an attack on press freedom.
Area : 17,811 sq. km. Population : 1,971,000 Language : Arabic Type of state : monarchy Head of state : Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah Head of government : Prime Minister Sheikh Saad al-Abdallah al-Salim al-Sabah
Kuwait-2003 Annual Report
Despite a harsh press law and many subjects that cannot be mentioned, the media has managed to win a fair amount of freedom. But the outspokenness of the pan-Arab satellite TV station Al-Jazeera greatly irritates the authorities, who closed its offices at the end of the year. The Internet is also closely monitored. Two journalists have been in prison since 1991.
In 2002, Kuwait marked the 11th anniversary of its liberation from seven months of Iraqi occupation. Along with Bahrain, it is the only Gulf emirate with an elected parliament and the government has to oversee an uneasy cohabitation of liberals and Islamic fundamentalists.
Press freedom is guaranteed by the constitution, but religion and the person of the emir and the heads of friendly states are among the taboo subjects listed in the very strict Press and Publications Law. Those who contravene it can be jailed for several years for insulting remarks or allusions to God, the Prophet and his disciples. But Kuwaiti journalists have much more freedom than their Saudi colleagues. Amendments to the press law to replace prison sentences by fines have been under consideration since 2000 but were not passed in 2002.
New information on a journalist killed before 2002
The Kuwait criminal court sentenced policeman Khaled al-Azmi to death on 4 February for murdering the country's first woman journalist, Houdaya Sultan al-Salem, publisher and editor of the political weekly Al-Majales, on 20 March 2001. Al-Azmi said he had killed her because she had written that the traditional dance of the women of the country's influential Al-Awasem tribe was sexually suggestive. But others suggested she may have been killed for complaining to the emir about police behaviour towards her after an article in the paper criticising the police. Al-Majales had also reported several times on embezzlement of public funds. The appeals court confirmed the death sentence on 8 June.
Two journalists imprisoned
At least two journalists had been in prison since 1991. Fawwaz Mohammed al-Awadi Bessisso and Ibtisam Berto Suleiman al-Dakhil were condemned to death in June that year for working for Al-Nida, the propaganda newspaper put out by the then Iraqi occupation forces. Seventeen journalists on the paper were arrested and tried at the time in conditions that violated international legal norms (including hasty court martials, secret evidence, no defence statements and allegations of torture).
The two death sentences for collaborating with an enemy country were commuted to life imprisonment but despite pressure from human rights organisations, the two journalists were not freed under the annual 25 February amnesty marking the liberation of Kuwait from the Iraqi occupation. Al-Dakhil was pardoned in July 2002 but she was kept in prison to await probable deportation to Iraq.
Pressure and obstruction
A group of four Kuwait lawyers sued the pan-Arab TV station Al-Jazeera for defamation on 14 February. On the station's well-known live programme Al-Itijah al-Muakis (Opposite Direction), some guests had accused Kuwait of being "a thorn in the side of Arab solidarity," while the Egyptian writer Sayed Nassar said Kuwait had "stolen" Iraqi oil before Iraq invaded it in 1990.
The station pointed out that a Kuwaiti guest had immediately responded to this criticism, but on 12 November, a civil court ordered the station to pay $16,000 in damages to the lawyers, who have filed another suit claiming $65,000 for "moral prejudice."
The information ministry phoned the local Al-Jazeera correspondent, Saad al-Anezi, on 3 November to order him to close the station's office on grounds that the TV was "biased." This came after it had broadcast a report the previous day that a quarter of Kuwait's territory had been sealed off to allow US-Kuwaiti military manoeuvres to take place there. The government said the report harmed the country's reputation.
A few days later, foreign minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah confirmed the office closure. Information minister Sheikh Ahmed al-Fahd al-Sabah said that while Al-Jazeera was a better station than others, it was not objective when it came to Kuwait.
About 50 cybercafés were closed by the authorities on 14 May as part of a crackdown on access to pornographic websites, which are strictly banned in all the Gulf states. Operating licences were cancelled and many cybercafés inspected. Communications minister Hamed Khajah said those closed could reopen as soon as new regulations came into force.
The November-December issue of the pan-Arab literary magazine Al-Adab, which discussed censorship in Egypt, was banned from distribution in the country. The editor of the magazine, which is based in Beirut, said the authorities were afraid readers would make a link between imprisoned writers, censored "obscene" literature and the hunting down of Islamic fundamentalists in Egypt and the situation in Kuwait.
Qatar
Gulf Media Monitor Area : 11,000 sq. km. Population : 575,000 Language : Arabic Type of state : monarchy Head of state : Emir Hamad bin Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani Head of government : Prime Minister Abdallah ben Khalifa ben Hamed al-Thani
Qatar-2003 Annual Report
Strong new attacks were made by neighbouring countries, other Arab nations and the United States against the locally-based pan-Arab TV station Al-Jazeera. Boycott threats by Arab regimes were carried out with enforced closure of its offices in Jordan and Kuwait. Qatar's written press, like Kuwait's, is freer than in other Arab states.
The TV station Al-Jazeera, which is respected for its professional and independent approach and is dubbed "the Arab world's CNN," has a regional audience of about 35 million for its satellite-fed quality programmes that contrast sharply with the official propaganda put out by repressive Arab regimes.
The station is known in the West for its exclusive coverage of the US offensive in Afghanistan and its broadcast of taped statements by Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. It has had an office in Kabul since 1998 and was one of the few media in Kabul before the Taliban regime fell.
In October 2001, US secretary of state Colin Powell asked Qatar's ruler, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani, the station's main shareholder, to get the station to alter its allegedly biased coverage of events. A month later, US forces bombed the Al-Jazeera offices in Kabul, claiming the building in which they were located was a hideout for Al-Qaeda militants. Despite promises, US authorities did not investigate the incident.
The station said on 16 September 2002 that one of its journalists, who had not been heard of since the previous December, was a prisoner at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba. The journalist, Sudanese assistant cameraman Sami al-Haj, was arrested on 15 December on the Afghan-Pakistani border. Despite official requests by the station and by his family since April 2002, the US authorities refused to say why he is being held.
Al-Jazeera's programmes, which allow ordinary people to give their views and deal with politically and socially taboo subjects, irritated Arab leaders more and more, especially the Saudis. On 25 June, during its popular programme Al-Itijah al-Muakis (Opposite Direction), speakers attacked the Middle East peace plan of Saudi Arabia's de factor ruler, Prince Abdullah. On 13 July, in a programme called "Without Borders," Saudi Arabia was accused of "betraying the Palestinian cause."
The Saudi foreign minister said the station was a serious and intractable problem and the Saudi ambassador in Qatar was recalled. In early October, five of the six information ministers at a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Muscat accused the station of "insulting and defaming" their countries. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman called for a commercial, advertising and news boycott of the station by governments and the private sector. However, the station continued to expand and in November, its director-general, Mohammed Jassem al-Ali, said an English-language version of Al-Jazeera would open in November 2003 to compete with the major international networks. Before then, in January 2003, the station was to open an English-language Internet website (www.aljazeera.net).
Journalist imprisoned
Firas Majali, a Jordanian journalist working for Al-Jazeera, was sentenced to death by the Qatar supreme court on 22 October 2002 for allegedly spying for an unnamed foreign country, understood by Al-Jazeera to be Jordan. He has been arrested in the Qatari capital, Doha, in February and his trial began in May, amid a diplomatic crisis between the two countries. His lawyer filed an appeal against the death sentence.
On 6 August, Al-Jazeera broadcast a very critical programme about Jordan, whose government closes the station's offices in Amman the next day and recalled its ambassador in Qatar. In September, Jordanian newspapers harshly attacked Qatar and Majali's family organised demonstrations in Amman to support him
Gulf Media Monitor Saudi Arabia Area : 2,149,690 sq. km. Population : 21,028,000 Language : Arabic Type of state : monarchy Head of state : King Fahd bin Abdulaziz al-Saud
Saudi Arabia-2003 Annual Report
For the first time in the history of the Saudi media, a press campaign led to the resignation of a senior religious figure. But overall, civil liberties in the country were very limited. The authorities ignored the wish for more freedom by part of the society and by journalists and despite growing international criticism since the 11 September attacks made every effort to keep control of the media and Internet activity.
The Saudi media has always been heavily censored and its journalists extremely careful about what they write. The 1982 royal decree on press and publications curbs freedom of expression very severely.
The information ministry's censorship policy is tailored to different audiences. Inside the country, all criticism of the royal family or the religious authorities is forbidden. The main function of the Saudi Press Agency, directly controlled by the information ministry, is to indicate to the rest of the media the lines not to be crossed. In 2002, for example, clashes between police and armed "Afghan Saudis" were not mentioned in the press.
For the outside world, the authorities try to give a modern image of a country with leaders keen to fight combat terrorism while remaining the official guardians of the holy places of Islam.
Newspapers are privately-owned but their publishers and editors are appointed or must be approved of by the government. The powerful Higher Media Council is headed by interior minister Prince Nayef, who is the true master of the media. Local television is deliberately under-equipped. Satellite receiver dishes are everywhere, though they are frowned on by the government. The most popular station in homes and ministries is the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera, despite being disapproved of by the government.
At the beginning of the year, Crown Prince Abdullah, the country's de facto ruler, lashed out at the station, accusing it of threatening the stability of the Arab World and discrediting the Gulf Cooperation Council, which he led in a campaign against the station resulting in the recall in June of the Saudi ambassador in Qatar. The Internet is another source of information for Saudis, but since its belated arrival in the country in 1999, access has been restricted by the government's Internet Services Unit. A survey by Harvard Law School said access to more than 2,000 websites was blocked, not just pornographic or ordinary film sites, but those to do with politics, health, women's rights and education.
To get round this censorship, many Internet users go through satellite dishes, which are anyway quicker and cheaper than using official Internet service providers. In October, the authorities banned this method and threatened to punish offenders. Foreign journalists wanting to report on what is going on inside the country have great difficulty getting visas and the foreign press is systematically censored, with undesirable articles and pictures blacked out.
The spread of receiver dishes forced the authorities to allow the written press a little more freedom and articles began appearing in the Arabic-language press and the traditionally freer English-language papers about previously taboo subjects such as unemployment, corruption and the extravagance of rich Saudis when abroad.
In March, the media pushed this freedom to the limits by investigating the death of 15 girls in a fire at their school in the holy city of Mecca. Quoting witnesses, several papers denounced the reactionary nature of the religious police who reportedly forbade the unveiled girls from leaving the burning school. Readers hailed the efforts of local reporters to dig out the truth, but the information and interior ministries soon clamped down on the story.
Despite this return to censorship and self-censorship, it was a first victory for the Saudi press and forced the resignation of a top religious official and the education ministry to take over responsibility for the education of girls.
In December, the Voice of Al-Islah became the first radio station of a Saudi opposition group to broadcast in the Arabian Peninsula and elsewhere by satellite. The radio is close to the fundamentalist London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (MIRA), founded in 1993.
A journalist imprisoned
Saleh al-Harith, of the newspaper Al-Yaum, was arrested in April 2000 in the southwestern Ismaelite town of Najran and is thought to be in the central prison of Dammam. He had phoned the TV station Al-Jazeera on 23 April 2000 to report the security forces attack on town's Al-Mansura mosque, during which two people were killed. The journalist, an Ismaelite (a branch of the Shiites persecuted by the authorities), was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Pressure and obstruction
Interior minister Prince Nayef ordered the dismissal on 18 March 2002 of Mohamed al-Mokhtar al-Fal, editor of the privately-owned daily Al-Madina, after he printed a very critical poem about Islamic justice and corrupt judges by one of the country's best-known poets, Abdul Mohsen Mossalam, who had been arrested on 16 March and imprisoned in Jeddah. Arab and Western human rights groups called for his release.
On 22 March, the authorities began censoring the Saudi-financed pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat before it went on sale in the country. Direct distribution had been authorised in 2001, along with that of another large pan-Arab daily, As-Sharq al-Awsat. The censorship was imposed the day after Al-Hayat's bureau chief in Riyadh, Daud Shurayan, reprinted in an editorial remarks by information minister Fuad al-Farsi about censorship.
Airport authorities seized videotapes and a laptop computer on 21 April from reporter Bob Arnot, of the US cable TV station MSNBC. They gave no explanation and ignored the official permits he had. He had been reporting on delicate subjects in the country, such as anti-American feeling among Saudi schoolchildren.
Qinan al-Ghamdi, editor of the privately-owned daily Al-Watan, was demoted to editorial adviser on 7 May after publishing articles denouncing corruption among government members and the religious police. The journalist said he had resigned for "personal reasons." The paper, known for its blunt editorials and for tackling taboo subjects, had shortly before called for political and religious reforms.
Distribution of Al-Hayat was banned on 23 October for several days after printing a letter from a group of American intellectuals to their Saudi colleagues headed "Can we coexist ?" The letter was responding to one in May from 153 Saudi intellectuals protesting that the US media was trying to smear Islam and Saudi Arabia.
Ahmed Mohamed Mahmud, publisher of Al-Madina, was forced to resign on 10 July for what were described as repeated violations of the press law by printing articles that displeased the authorities, such as one about the razing of a slum in Jeddah. Associates said he was also accused of allowing sacked former editor Mohamed al-Mokhtar al-Fal to write a weekly article in the paper. The paper's editor, Mohamed Hosni Mahjub, was demoted to deputy editor.
Gulf Media Monitor Egypt - Area : 1,001,449 sq. km.
- Population : 69,080,000
- Language : Arabic
- Type of state : republic
- Head of state : President Hosni Mubarak
Egypt - 2003 Annual report
The opposition media regularly attacks the government, but Egyptian journalists are often forced to censor themselves. The 1996 press law allows prison sentences for libel, "insults" and "putting out false news." Five journalists and a cyber-dissident were given jail terms in 2002 and two others were still in prison at year-end.
The United Nations Committee Against Torture called on the government in November 2002 to take steps to curb brutality in the country's prisons. The case of Egyptian-American sociologist and human rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim caused a big stir and tension between Egypt and the United States. He was jailed and then sentenced in July to seven years in prison by the supreme state security court for harming the country's image and accepting foreign money without government permission. He was freed in early December after an international campaign.
The case showed the kind of pressure the country's human rights defenders faced. Violation of these rights continued in the media, with criticism of the president, his family and the army among the taboo subjects, despite the constitutional court's 1993 ruling that the right to criticise public officials was a requirement of a democratic system.
Opposition journalists regularly criticise the government but Egyptian journalists are very often obliged to censor themselves. The state of emergency law allows the president to order the lengthy detention without charge or trial of anyone suspected of "threatening public order or national security." The 1996 press law provides for jail terms of between one and two years for libel, "insults" or "putting out false news."
Five journalists and one cyber-dissident were given prison sentences during the year. No laws regulate the Internet but the interior ministry set up a department in September 2002 to monitor new information technology. Until then, the Internet had been watched by the ministry's information and archives department, which several times helped the security services do investigations, identify "suspects" and arrest Internet users, especially homosexuals.
Two journalists imprisoned
Both were still in prison at the end of 2002. Abd Al-Munim Gamal Al-Din Abd Al-Munim, of the Islamist weekly Al Shaab, the organ of the Labour Party, was jailed in February 1993 under an indefinite detention order. On 30 October that year, after an eight-month trial before the Cairo military court, he was acquitted along with a dozen other defendants. Instead of being freed, he was sent to Tora prison, in Cairo, and at the end of 2002 was in Fayum prison, southwest of Cairo.
The state security court sentenced Mahmud Mahran, editor of the weekly Al Nabaa and the daily Akher Khabar, to three years in prison and a fine of 200 Egyptian pounds (about 40 euros) on 16 September 2001 for "inciting national rebellion," "insulting a religion" and "publishing indecent photographs."
In July 2001, the court had suspended the licences of the two papers. Issues of them had been seized for containing "false allegations about a holy place" in articles and photos about the debauchery of a bearded man, shown as a monk at a monastery in Assyut (central Egypt) with a naked woman, under the headline "A monastery turned into a whorehouse." The articles sparked many demonstrations by Copts in Cairo in June 2001.
The Cairo supreme administrative court reversed the ban on the two weeklies on 25 May 2002, saying that neither the law nor the national constitution allowed publications to be banned. Mahran's appeal against his sentence was rejected in July.
Six journalists arrested
Mohammed Izz-Eddin En-Najjar (cameraman) and Mohammed Eid Jalal (sound-man) of the pan-Arab TV station Al-Jazeera, were arrested in Alexandria on 6 March 2002 while filming a pro-Palestinian demonstration at the university. Their camera, cassettes and car were seized by police who said they did not have permission to film inside the university. They were freed the next day, their equipment was returned and they were not charged with any offence. Several journalists were arrested in the Ramle section of Alexandria on 27 June during a parliamentary by-election contested by candidates of the Muslim Brotherhood and the ruling National Democratic Party. Hany Emara (journalist) and Rida al-Shafie (cameraman) of the UAE station Abu Dhabi TV, were arrested and taken to the local police station when they asked permission to film inside a polling station. They were released a few hours later after voting had ending. The same day, Gihan Rushdy, of the German TV station ZDF, and cameraman Ayman Atef were held for several hours at Ramle police station after filming a confrontation between police and voters at a polling station. Police seized their film.
A journalist physically attacked
During a parliamentary by-election in Alexandria on 27 June 2002, Associated Press reporter Sarah el-Deeb was stopped by police from entering a polling station. As she was talking outside with voters, she was attacked by three women who pulled her hair and injured her neck. Police did not intervene.
Pressure and obstruction
Adel Hammuda, a reporter with the weekly Sawt Al Umma, and the paper's publisher, Essam Fahmy, were convicted on 21 March 2002 of libelling Nagib Sawiris, the head of Orascom, one of the country's two biggest telecommunications firms, and each sentenced to six months in prison and fined 500 Egyptian pounds (100 euros) for saying in an article that the wealthy Sawiris was involved in shady business deals. The conviction was overturned on appeal in October, but Sawiris filed a total of 30 lawsuits against the paper.
A court in Bolak (Cairo) sentenced Ahmed Haredi Muhamed, editor of the online newspaper Al Methaq El Arabi, to six months in prison on 28 April for libelling Ibrahim Nafie, editor of the pro-government daily Al-Ahram and head of the Arab Press Syndicate, for saying online in May and June 2001 that senior staff at Al-Ahram had embezzled money. The sentence was upheld/overturned on appeal on 22 December.
Shohdy Surur, webmaster for the English-language Al-Ahram Weekly, was sentenced on appeal on 14 October to a year in prison for "possessing immoral material for sale and distribution with intent to corrupt public morality" (article 178 of the criminal code). He had posted on an Internet website, www.wadada.net, which is partly devoted to the work of his poet and actor father Nagib, a poem called Kuss Ummiyat, which contained passages said to be "an affront to public morality."
The poem was written by the elder Surur, in earthy and sexually-explicit language, as a criticism of Egyptian society and culture after the country's defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War with Israel. Surur, who died in 1978, was never prosecuted for writing it. His son Shohdy was arrested and interrogated for three days in November 2001. He has dual Egyptian and Russian nationality and lives in Russia. The state committee for investment and free-zones issued a warning on 4 November to the privately-owned satellite station Dream TV after it put out a programme in mid-October that dealt in an allegedly "sensational manner" with "very sensitive issues" for Egyptian and Arab society" and banned the programme from being re-broadcast. Presenter Hala Sarhan had discussed with viewers the subject of female masturbation.
Said Abdel Khaleq, editor of the privately-owned weekly Al-Midan, and Walid al-Daramali, one of the paper's journalists, were given suspended three-month prison sentences on 5 November for publishing in May a new photo of the bullet-riddled body of President Anwar al-Sadat, who was assassinated in 1981. They were accused of "defiling" his memory and convicted under article 21 of the press law that bans the invasion of a citizen's privacy. Khaleq had been sacked on 27 May after the photo appeared. The journalists appealed against the sentence. In late November, the authorities banned distribution of the November/December issue of the Lebanon-based pan-Arab literary magazine Al-Adab which was about censorship in Egypt and contained analysis and descriptions of censorship of the press, films and the arts. Well-known novelists such as Sonallah Ibrahim and Edward Kharrat contributed to the issue. After pressure from international organisations and Arab intellectuals, the issue was finally distributed in Egypt in early December.
In mid-December, the authorities banned distribution of the Lebanon-based magazine Zawaya for printing an allegedly pornographic cover, showing a belly-dancer with her costume decorated with banknotes. Lutfi Abdel-Qader, head of the state censorship body monitoring foreign publications, said the issue violated the press law about "public morality."
Gulf Media Monitor Internet The Internet is the bane of all dictatorial regimes, but even in democracies, new anti-terrorism laws have tightened government control of it and undermined the principle of protecting journalistic sources. This report is about attitudes to the Internet by the powerful in 60 countries, between spring 2001 and spring 2003. The preface is by Vinton G. Cerf, who is often called the "father" of the Internet.-
