Media Crackdown

SOURCE: Federal Trade Commission

This past Sunday, February 6th, marked the two week duration of the uprising in Cairo and the protesting of Mubarak's regime by Egyptian citizens. Reporting from Tahrir Square in the country's capital, Democracy Now's Sharif Abbdel Kouddous detailed the current "media crackdown" experienced by other journalists and ground reporters covering the revolution. In response to the army general's request for protesters to leave Tahrir on Saturday night, the crowd replied with "we're not leaving until he leaves", alluding to the end of Mubarak's regime. The "crackdown" on reporters has killed one person and left many others beaten and battered. Police, guised in plain clothes, have even gone so far to search and scan the footage the journalists have accumulated by checking their cameras, laptops, and cell phones. Cell phones are extremely crticial in this situation as being the last resort of the reporters' publication tool because carrying cameras are a dead giveaway. Kouddous spoke with Dana Smillie, a multimedia journalist, who has lived in Cairo for 15 years and currently ten minutes from Tahrir, but described "the last 12 days [being] the most exhilirating and the most terrifying 12 days of [her] life." Another reporter, Steffen Jensen from TV2Denmark, said he was attacked by a group of Mubarak supporters behind a museum. Although yet to be confirmed, the latest news suggests that all journalists entering Tahrir must get confirmation from the Ministry of Interior by registering their pictures and gaining permission thereafter.

    Under the assumption that the media effectively acts as a fourth branch of government, being a "watchdog" of sorts, it is responsible for the presentation of information to the public and creation of the public's reaction to the content. Supported by the Agenda Setting theory in the field of communications, the media emphasizes and influences the way people think about certain issues and their importance. The Egyptian government told their citizens that the journalists reporting and gathering information in Tahrir were spies and went so far to shut down the internet from February 25th to the 28th. The "systematic targeting" of journalist is a direct reflection on the Egyptian government’s efforts to contain the revolutionary activities within their borders. The withholding of this information can, and will, essentially contribute to the world's oblivion regarding the atrocities occurring, both witnessed and unknown, because the publication of stories are in jeopardy along with journalists' lives. Detrimental to the human rights organization and other countries' aid efforts, the monitoring of information will play a vital role, globally, in the coming events of the protest and the end of Mubarak's regime.


Here is the article's link on Democracy Now!'s website in addition to other articles following the African revolutions.