Although the ceiling of media freedoms was raised, and the activity of government and private media during the revolution augmented, the media has fallen into crisis due to the unsteady pace of the revolution. Organised, serious and continued efforts haven't been exerted to develop a robust Egyptian media system. The media environment, and laws governing it belonging to the former regime, remained intact. This in turn doubled its perplexity, confusion and inability to grasp the change that began with the advent of the 25 January Revolution. The media kept stumbling, and thus became prey within the clutches of state institutions and executive power, represented first by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and then the Muslim Brotherhood regime. The burden of the successive deterioration and failure of SCAF and the Muslim Brotherhood in administering state affairs was thrown on the shoulders of media personnel. There is ignorance among those in power on the role performed by the media. It is a fact that the media doesn't make events but participates in shaping public opinion and influencing it via news coverage and commentary. The media uncovers what is hidden and it cannot nor should not be muzzled or bear the brunt of social and governmental corruption alone. Hence, SCAF was keen to launch its own site and the Muslim Brotherhood publishes its own newspaper (Freedom and Justice) and launched its own satellite channel (Misr 25) to defend its policies and spread its viewpoints. However, these means lacked culturally and politically qualified and media trained cadres and led to discarding professional fundamentals and an incapability in conducting serious cultural dialogues, instead adopting flagrant propagandist styles, in addition to superficiality and naivety that characterise the intellectual contents they disseminate. All the aforementioned aspects drove the Muslim Brotherhood to try to control the media and this materialised through appointing an information minister belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, and for the Shura Council (dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood) to make use of all the legal privileges inherited from the Mubarak regime in appointing editor-in-chiefs of state-owned newspapers based on criterion of belonging to or being pro-Muslim Brotherhood. It is well known fact that the power and privileges wielded by the incumbent information minister, and which were inherited from his predecessor, Safwat Al-Sherif (one of Mubarak's closest aides), allow him to draw and change media policies and appoint the heads of TV and radio channels and shape the Egyptian Radio and Television Union. THE CRISIS OF EGYPTIAN MEDIA: The crisis of the official media represents itself in the subjection of the entire range of media institutions, with their cadres, policies, administration, finance and orientation, to the information minister and the Shura Council. The crisis is far worsened due to the absence of an independent media personnel syndicate, in addition to the confusion and division the Press Syndicate suffers from, which were made possible through the continuity of the intrusions of the government, the interior ministry, businessmen, Muslim Brotherhood, market tycoons and advertisers. This in turn led to the decline in professional performance and corrupting of the media environment, especially in light of not activating media codes of ethics, despite their nominal existence. All this gave way to the exclusion of a constitutional clause forbidding the imprisonment of journalists for publishing offences and abolishing penalties that constrict media freedoms. THE PRIVATE MEDIA CRISIS: Although the number of satellite channels increased and the influence of the private satellite media and privately owned newspapers widened, private satellite channels are still restrained with an arsenal of constraints. The only authority allowed to close private satellite channels is the Investment Agency, because they report to it, not the Ministry of Information. There is no legislation organising the rights, duties and financial resources monitoring of private satellite media. THE CRISIS OF JOURNALISTS AND MEDIA PERSONNEL: Egyptian newspapers are controlled by 20 laws and more than 30 clauses allow mandatory imprisonment of journalists, media personnel and bloggers in spite of the demands and struggles of journalists through their syndicate in order to abolish these clauses, deeming financial penalties sufficient, during the whole presidency of Mubarak. This struggle also continued after the revolution, but post-revolution governments didn't fulfil this demand. The new constitution came to pass with no clause abolishing these penalties, which act like a Damocles sword over journalists and media personnel. Even President Morsi's government used these clauses against an editor-in-chief accused of insulting the president and disseminating rumours. He was remanded in custody awaiting trial. However, President Morsi, using his current legislative power, issued a decree to abolish remanding journalists in publishing cases. This is of course a positive step, but it was expected that the president should use his legislative power and abolish all penalties constricting media freedoms. The conflict escalated and Islamists launched a siege around Media Production City, attacked media stars and prevented them from performing their jobs. In fact, Egyptian media personnel and journalists are facing now a number of challenges that are complicated in light of the augmentation of executive powers, its monopoly of legislative power, its attack on the judiciary, and a lack of social responsibility among media personnel. Despite the fact that the present media scene appears to widen the margins of freedoms, this came at the expense of professional and societal commitment. A large percentage of journalists and media personnel, especially those with little experience, have exaggerated egos before completing their professional proficiency and intellectual and cultural formation, and they consider themselves holy entities that can't be questioned about what they write or disseminate. They even believe they can hold everyone accountable without any professional, intellectual or ethical regulations or criteria. Doubtless the political conflicts that followed the January Revolution swept away in their wake most of the professionally and ethically positive aspects the Egyptian press developed through two centuries. Doubtless, media personnel have faced complicated struggles amid a turbulent political environment in which the politician dominated most of the aspects of societal mobility and the media was used as a pivotal tool to promote their interests, augmenting their profits and fighting their opponents. We may consider media personnel and the media the first victims to fall due to political conflicts and interactions, and social and cultural contradictions, in addition to intrusions of market tycoons and advertisers, which became more ferocious in the light of the stumbling of the Arab Spring. The real loser is the audience, however, whose rights in knowledge and participation have been quashed amid the inability of the media to speak about the entire societal reality with its economic complications and social, political and cultural contradictions after the January Revolution and its repercussions. There is a nagging question about the readiness and possibility of the media in participating in and promoting and supporting the culture of enlightenment, comprehensive change and activating civil rights (freedom of thought and expression) and political rights, such as the right to participate in national decision-making, cultural rights, such as the right to create and to be different, social rights, such as the right to health and education, communication rights, such as the right to know and communicate, in the context of the insistence of those in power to “empower” the Muslim Brotherhood only, excluding every other political trend and revolutionary force that played a substantial role in the January Revolution. Egyptian society after the January Revolution is in ever-increasing need of a media system that expresses the objectives of the revolution, the 1500 martyrs who sacrificed their lives and the 12,000 who were injured or became partially or totally impaired. We are in need of a media that reflects in professional honesty and fairness the aspirations and preoccupations of social strata, and diverse political and intellectual currents, with impartiality and not bias to the state agenda, striving to drag religion into the political arena, or forces fighting revolutions with political and petrodollar might, or bureaucracies exploiting existing circumstances to pull the plug on windows of freedom on the pretext of protecting society from chaos. WHAT'S TO BE DONE? There are a number of obstacles facing those in power that will hinder their total domination on the media — some of these can be attributed to the satellite and cyber media, especially the Internet and the impossibility of controlling it. What is more important is that journalists and media personnel continue their struggle seeking professional independence and establishing syndicates and modifying laws organising media work, and seek seriously to engage all civil societies organisations, parties and trade unions with the aim of creating a real societal media. What is also demanded is a total re-editing of the entire professional and legal framework that defines the responsibilities and rights of the media system through which follow-up mechanisms and financial and administrative accountancy are applied, in addition to getting rid of all media leaders whose participation in corruption was proven. There is a professional and societal necessity that stipulates the following: - Modifying the laws organising journalism and stating in the constitution the abolishment of penalties constricting media freedoms. - Activating professional and administrative independence for press institutions through electing editors-in-chiefs and restructuring the financial position of journalists and separating advertisements from editorial work and getting rid of advertisers and market agents disguised as journalists. - Setting-up research sections focussing on target audience and readers, conducting training courses for journalists and activating the role of the Journalists' Syndicate in laying new serious mechanisms that protect professional rights through codes of ethics. - Seeking to abolish Egypt's Higher Press Council and Information Ministry. - To accelerate the pace in establishing a syndicate for media personnel working in TV and radio and activate its role in protecting the rights of the audience to know and communicate. The writer is a veteran professor of journalism.
