CAIRO: Parliament passed a controversial press law on Monday despite protests by journalists and opposition activists who say it puts new limits on press freedom. The government-drafted law, billed as a reform and passed by a show of hands, eliminates imprisonment for some publishing offences but continues to let judges send journalists to jail in many cases. The final text included a last-minute concession to the media that appeared aimed at easing journalists fears they could be jailed for reporting on accusations of government corruption. But the opposition said the bill was another setback for Egyptian liberals and showed the insincerity of pledges by President Hosni Mubarak to allow more political freedom and end jail terms for publishing infractions. Under pressure at the time to show evidence of political change, Mubarak promised two years ago to abolish custodial sentences for publishing offences. The Egyptian government has also tried to take back some of the freedoms it appeared to concede last year during the height of the U.S. campaign for democracy in the Middle East, such as the right to protest peacefully without police intervention. The press law passed, on a third day of deliberations, just two weeks after the government pushed through a similarly divisive judiciary law that opponents said did not guarantee that judges can be independent of the executive. At the end of the day, we are just in full-scale de-liberalization, said Josh Stacher, an independent Cairo-based political scientist. But he added: I don t think we are going to see a full-scale crackdown. It is something to be held in reserve. The Egyptian government says the press law is a step toward a freer press because it does abolish some custodial sentences, for example for libel. Parliament, at Mubarak s suggestion, ultimately removed a controversial clause that would have allowed jail terms for journalists who impugn the financial integrity of officials or state employees, parliamentary sources said. The president responded positively to the representatives of the people and instructed the government to drop that article, Mufid Shihab, the government minister in charge of parliamentary affairs, said in a statement. The amended law still retains articles allowing prison sentences for libeling the Egyptian president or foreign heads of state. But it retained increases in the maximum fines that can be imposed on reporters for offences such as libel. The last few years have seen the growth in Egypt of lively independent newspapers willing to challenge the rich and the powerful, right up to the presidency. The old state-owned newspapers are beginning to lose their readership. Egypt s independent and opposition newspapers did not publish on Sunday to protest at the law, and several hundred journalists and activists marched peacefully to try to stop the law passing. State-owned papers went to press as normal. This is a law for killing the press, journalist Mohamed Abdel Qudoos said over a loudhailer at Sunday s protest. The opposition Muslim Brotherhood, which holds nearly a fifth of the seats in a parliament dominated by the ruling National Democratic Party, has also objected to the law. Agencies
