State media is an asset of the nation and must be reformed to fall in line with public sentiment and the aspirations of all Egyptians, writes Awatef Abdel-Rahman* In the Nasserist period, the Egyptian media served almost exclusively as an organ of the state for regulating and mobilising the masses, though a calculated margin was made available to an opposing view as represented by Al-Talia and Al-Katib. Under Sadat, nascent political parties were given the opportunity to issue party newspapers. The parties had no other means to communicate with the public, encumbered as they were by a thicket of legal and security regulations that restricted their activities to meetings and assemblies inside party headquarters. The Mubarak era saw the rise of privately owned newspapers, as well as the proliferation of national and political party newspapers. Audio-visual media remained state controlled from the Nasserist era until the mid-1990s, which brought the spread of satellite television and the Internet. The Egyptian media map has since grown quite extensive. It now features eight press establishments that produce 55 newspapers, nine radio stations belonging to the Radio and Television Federation, two land-based national television stations and six regional channels, two satellite channels (Al-Misriya and Nile International), 11 specialised channels and, more recently, the two Internet news sites, Egy-News and Nile News. The audio-visual media establishment is staffed by 44,000 employees. The Egyptian media establishment, in policy, practice and outlook, was controlled by the ruling party as a result of which media content was tailored to the needs of the ruling authorities and geared to expressing and promoting their interests and ambitions. It also increasingly came to reflect the influence of advertisers, who represented the emerging class of businessmen and entrepreneurs. The effect of these phenomena was to marginalise the communication and information needs of the public and to turn media professionals into government bureaucrats, to the detriment of the special properties of this profession that are closely connected to shaping an informed public. If, in spite of all the restrictions, the private sector and political party media and some Arab satellite stations provided audiences with some critical discourse that helped pave the way for the 25 January Revolution, this pales next to the profound effects of that qualitative shift triggered by the IT revolution. Drawn to the open resources and potential of the Internet, the upcoming generation of Egyptians became increasingly adept at interacting with social networking sites, which offered them the ability to communicate, rally support and mobilise in the virtual world and then translate this into concrete and resolute action on the ground. They were thus equipped with an unprecedented communicative power that became a chief instrument for revolution and change, and influencing public opinion, in spite of the high illiteracy rate of over 60 per cent of the populace. The enormous changes in the media world since 2004-2005 have facilitated the high-speed flow of and access to information. Internet communications may be an industry but it offers a vast degree of freedom that is neither entirely unregulated but nor purely subject to the forces of competition and the ideology of the market. However, such developments did not affect the state media, which remained fenced in by an arsenal of legislative and security restrictions and which had been reduced to a fiendish propaganda and brainwashing machine for the ruling regime and business tycoon cohorts. So, when the uprising hit on 25 January and evolved into a grassroots revolution as the people poured out in their millions to take their place alongside the vanguard of revolutionary youth, the state-run media was unable to grasp the magnitude of the event and, cowering beneath the cloak of the regime that bred it, protected it and bottle-fed its ideas and attitudes, it covered the events in the biased and distorted way that was expected of it. But then Mubarak was forced to step down and the state media was thrown into a panic. Suddenly, its apparatchiks hopped the fence to the other side with an amazing speed and agility, and began to defend the revolution, forecast its glorious progress and caution against grave dangers that threatened it with a zeal that made one weep over the state of the professional ethics in this sector. The revolution threw the state-owned journalists' intellectual and editorial compass out of whack. They no longer knew which side their bread was buttered on and who to take orders from. They had been cast adrift and they had no idea how to navigate the seas of free thought and professional integrity. While the private sector and political party media (flawed as it may be by some unprofessional practices and the editorial influences of advertisers) surged forward in the new and open media climate made possible by the revolution, the bureaucratically shackled state media floundered. As we commemorate the anniversary of the revolution, it is important to consider how to salvage this important asset. How can the government-owned media acquire the ability to express the realities of post- revolutionary Egypt with all their social, economic, political and cultural complexities and contradictions? What needs to be done to enable it to participate in spreading, reinforcing and deepening the culture of enlightenment and comprehensive change, as epitomised by civil rights (freedom of thought and expression), political rights (pluralistic grassroots participation in decision-making processes), social rights (to health and education, for example), cultural rights (such as the right to differ and the right to artistic and intellectual creativity), and communication rights (such as the right to the acquisition of knowledge and access to information)? How can we turn the Egyptian media into an institution at the service of the people, one that guarantees their right to know and that, therefore, is free from bias in favour of the ruling authorities or subordination to the special interest groups that dominate the market? Egyptian society needs a media establishment that expresses the goals for which the revolution was waged and for which 1,500 people sacrificed their lives and 9,000 were maimed and wounded. We need a media that faithfully mirrors the aspirations and concerns of the diverse sectors and political and ideological trends of society, and that does so professionally, without catering to special agendas and without subservience to profitability. To realise these needs we must restructure the media establishment, strengthen its professional standards, enhance its administrative and financial efficiency, and turn it to the service of the aims of so ciety as a whole. Many journalists propose the "public service" model which would be financed by means of a one per cent per capita income tax, thereby making the people the actual owners of the media and, hence, making the larger public the target audience. However, I believe that this model might be difficult to achieve at present. At the same time, the desired changes would not be brought about by privatising state media establishments. Instead, we need to totally revamp the legal and professional structures that govern their policies and processes so as to create the necessary mechanisms for financial, administrative and professional accountability. Towards this end, we need to abolish the Ministry of Information and replace it with a supreme council or board for the audio-visual media, which would be responsible for planning and coordinating between media agencies in the framework of a national strategy drawn up by an elite group representative of experienced journalists, scholars, and a broad array of political, legal, cultural and social trends. The strategy would comprise the policies, plans and programmes that would first have to be presented for public discussion with the media before it they are approved. At the same time, it will be essential to dispense with the current media leaderships and replace them with new ones elected on the basis of professional competence and moral integrity. In further detail, the following are the types of change and restructuring that are needed to reinvigorate the state media establishment in keeping with the revolution's aims and aspirations: GOVERNMENT-RUN NEWSPAPERS: - The laws regulating the journalistic profession must be amended. These are the Press Regulation Law of 1996 with a particular eye to abolishing those articles inimical to journalistic freedoms and that permit for the detention of journalists, and the Press Syndicate Law of 1970 which is long past its validity date as the result of events, social changes and developments in the nature of the journalistic occupation. - Government-owned newspapers should remain the property of the state, but their professional and administrative autonomy must be guaranteed. Towards this end, they should be placed under the supervision of the Press Syndicate, which will be responsible for ensuring the thorough application of the Journalists' Charter of Honour and the strict application of provisions intended to deter ethical and professional violations. - New editors-in-chief must be appointed by means of direct elections on the basis of a set of professional and ethical standards drafted by the Press Syndicate. Candidates for the posts should be required to produce proposals for developing state journalistic establishments. The proposals would be put to discussion among journalists in general assemblies before elections are held. Elected editors-in-chief will be accountable to the syndicate. - Each newspaper establishment would then hold elections for their boards of directors whose president and members would be accountable to parliament. - The provision of the press law regarding the separation of advertisements from editorial policy must be put into full effect. The newspaper boards of directors and the Press Syndicate would be responsible and accountable for advertisement content. - The editors of the various departments of each newspaper establishment should be elected by means of free and direct elections. - There must be a new budgetary and accounting system. This should be drafted by the Press Syndicate and put into effect in all newspaper establishments. - There must be periodic professional training and awareness-raising courses and sessions for all levels of journalists. Passing certain courses or obtaining certificates should be a requirement for employment and promotion. - Press establishments should be purged of agents of business interests. THE AUDIO-VISUAL MEDIA: - In this sector, change should begin with the creation of an autonomous syndicate for media professionals. The syndicate would coordinate with the Press Syndicate preparatory to creating a federation for both the printed and the audio-visual press. - The audio-visual media establishments would continue to be the property of the state, but with guarantees for their professional and administrative autonomy. They would be supervised by a board of trustees representative of all cultural, political and media trends, and their administrative heads would be appointed on the basis of free and direct elections and would be accountable to parliament. - Detailed development strategies would be created for each type of media through consultations with boards of trustees that will be responsible for submitting them for study to the heads of the various television and radio stations. Before approval, the strategies must be put to intensive discussion and deliberation among media executives (broadcasters, programming directors, etc). - The boards of trustees would be responsible for creating an advertising policy for the audio-visual media that would be consistent with local and international charters and conventions of media ethics. The policy would be put to debate in the audio-visual professionals syndicate before approval. - Public opinion research departments should be established in every print or audio-visual media establishment. By means of polls and other research instruments, the departments would keep abreast of changing public opinion trends and needs. Their findings would be applied in the preparation and updating of production and editorial policies. As for private sector media, it should be obliged to implement the general principles of a national media strategy that calls for free and direct elections of editorships and boards of directors and for the strict application of journalist and media professionals' charters of honour and conventions of professional ethics. * The writer is a veteran professor of mass communication at Cairo University and a leading member of 9 March Movement.
