CAIRO: The state of the Egyptian media was the focus of the eleventh installment of Monday's Tahrir Dialogues, a series of panel discussions hosted by the American University in Cairo (AUC). The panel brought together Albert Shafik, managing director of ONTV; Mohammad Hany, head of CBC and Yasser Abdel Aziz, Al-Masry Al-Youm columnist and media analyst, in a discussion moderated by veteran anchor Hafez Al Mirazi, director of AUC's Adham Center for Journalism. The panel discussed professionalism and freedom of the media after the revolution. Participants agreed that the red lines formerly imposed by state security and the Ministry of Information were mostly gone. Al-Mirazi said that some regulations during the transitional period Egypt are acceptable as long as they do not persist over one year. Hany said that media freedom must first stem from within media organizations and that it must be exercised within the boundaries of professionalism, which continue to lag across the board. “All the talk shows which created the awareness that helped spark the revolution had an editorial, rather than an informational stance,” he said. Abdel Aziz agreed, adding that the pillars of professional media are freedom and social responsibility. The storming of Al Jazeera Mubashir Misr's office in Cairo elicited condemnation from the panel. Shafik said that even though he is in favor of closing down a media outlet lacking the proper permits, he rejected the involvement of security personnel in the issue. “It should have been closed down according to a court ruling, not through the police,” Shafik said. Al-Mirazi raised the issue of state-security's interference in the content of TV programs before the revolution and whether this has come to a halt. In the past panelists unanimously agreed that the interference was mostly from ex-minister of communication, Anas Al-Fiqqi, not directly from state security. Shafik said that after refusing to submit to Al-Fiqqi's dictates, ONTV received a warning that it would be closed down “for lacking the necessary permits” an accusation Shafik assured was false. He also recalled that on Jan. 25 Al-Fiqqi called him and told him to pretend it was Easter, which he completely disregarded. Centralism in the media and how it can be cured was another topic of discussion. Abdel Aziz said that the centralization is a reaction to the centralized nature of the Egyptian audience and that the media will only decentralize when the entire social and political system in Egypt does so. “Al-Masry Al-Youm for example,” he said, “started a local paper a couple of years ago in Alexandria which failed because of the centralized nature of the audience.” An audience member, however, attributed the centralization to the focus of private media channels on pleasing advertisers, hence disregarding the pressing local problems of the viewers. This led to another major issue: ownership models and businessmen's growing monopoly over the media. Shafik, like Hany, confirmed that channel owners do not exercise any control over the editorial content of TV programs. Shafik said that telecom magnate and owner of ONTV Naguib Sawiris' involvement does not exceed requests to hire someone or suggest giving air time to express certain opinions or a piece of information. Abdel Aziz said that owners should agree with managers on the direction of the channel but must not interfere in the daily means of achieving the goal. Hany added that media owners in Egypt may interfere in the editorial policy of their outlets to dodge harm, yet they seldom interfere to increase revenues.
