CAIRO: Al-Shorouk newspaper was the most balanced in covering the news following the revolution, and ONTV's Baladna Bel Masry tackled more controversial issues than Dream TV's Al Ashera Masa'an, said a report on the Egyptian media coverage of the judicial system and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) on Thursday. Regarding the media coverage of political streams and presidential hopefuls, potential candidates Amr Moussa and Mohamed ElBaradei and the Freedom and Justice and The Free Egyptians parties took the lion's share, while coverage of older more established parties like Al-Wafd and Al-Tagammu came in second place. The report concluded that the media addressed SCAF the same way it used to address Hosni Mubarak before his fall. Journalist Nefissa Al-Sabba' said the reason behind this was that only the heads of the state institutions had changed, while the second and third row officials who were close to the former regime remained the same. "The officials responsible for the state media now are the same as those responsible for it during Mubarak's reign," she said at the press conference. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) and the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) issued a report on Thursday, including a survey on the media coverage of the judicial system, SCAF, political parties and presidential hopefuls, following the Jan. 25 uprising that toppled the previous regime. The survey was conducted on a selected sample of Egyptian media from July 10 to July 31. The sample included Al-Masry Al-Youm, Al-Shorouq and Al-Wafd newspapers, as well as masrawy.com and Al-Youm Al-Sabei and Al-Badil news portals, ONTV's Baladna Bel Masry and Dream TV's Al-Ashera Masa'an talk shows as well as state TV's Bokra Ahla, a program hosted by televangelist Amr Khaled. The state-owned newspapers including daily Al-Akhbar and Al-Ahram, were more supportive of SCAF in their news coverage. However, independent newspapers including Al-Masry Al-youm and Al-Shorouk raised questions and critiques of SCAF's policies, while supporting issues that have popular support. This is the same policy these newspapers followed during Mubarak's reign, said the report. However, Gamal Eid, head of the ANHRI, singled out Al-Ahram's website, in both English and Arabic, as the only state-owned media outlet that witnessed a huge change in its coverage following the Jan. 25 revolt, taking a more critical stance towards SCAF. "Al-Ahram's website is considered a credible source of information now," Eid said. Al-Ahram's website posted a number of critical news reports about SCAF including a one posted on July 24 titled "The second revolution of anger considers SCAF's statement no.69 an accusation of treason against all revolutionaries," in which it held April 6 Youth Movement responsible for causing a rift between the people and the army. Another piece published on July 31, titled "On the edge of hell," criticized SCAF, condemning its accusations against the April 6 Youth Movement of serving a foreign agenda, and hinting about SCAF's special relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood. Eid said that the state-owned media witnessed a state of confusion post uprising. "First the government assigned a new minister of information and then they cancelled the ministry of information altogether, then appointed a new minister," he said, adding that the state-owned media was affected by this. Mahmoud Bassyouni, coordinator in EOHR, said that the coverage of the Islamist groups in print came in second place, following coverage of independent activists and coalitions. Coverage of political parties and movements came in third place, while Sufi groups earned the least coverage. Prime Minister Essam Sharaf garnered the highest rate of coverage for a government official, followed by interior Minister Mansour El-Essawy and Deputy Prime Minister Aly Al-Selmy. The survey found that Al-Akbar newspaper was more biased towards SCAF than Al-Ahram, while Masrawy's news portal and Al-Youm Al-Sabei were found to be more supportive of SCAF than Al-Badil. The report said that Masrawy covered the views of prominent Islamist figures who supported SCAF. The criticism of SCAF was more prevalent in news portals than in print. The report also pointed out that the coverage of the prosecution and the judiciary's performance in ongoing trials in the press was more than ten times the coverage of the military trials of civilians. Eid said that the media focused on four topics related to SCAF including SCAF's management of Egypt in the transitional period, how SCAF dealt with protests, its role in reforming the judiciary and how it dealt with the emergency law. Al-Masry Al-Youm had the biggest coverage of these issues with 163 stories related to SCAF. The report concluded that more media light must be shed on the issue of military trials for civilians which concerns more than 10,000 Egyptians and their families, in addition to topics related to the independence of the judiciary and guaranteeing justice for all. A similar survey will be conducted monthly to evaluate the role of the media in shaping public opinion during the transitional period, said Eid.
