During the episode’s introduction, Elebrashy warned against the hijacking of universities in Egypt for political reasons. During the interview, Elebrashy adopted a counter argument by emphasizing how he watched videos on YouTube showing students while they were smashing universities’ facilities and making the university lose its prestige. The students, hosted in the talk show, were painfully recalling how 16 of their colleagues have been killed on campuses, in 2013, without full investigations to charge the culprits. In response, Elebrashy interrogated these students to reveal their political loyalties and affiliations. In a skeptical voice, Elebrashy directed his questions to detect if these students represent themselves or if they support what he described as the violent terrorist group, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB).
Elebrashy’s performance is not the worst case of adopting the narrative of the state security apparatus among many journalists and TV presenters. It is so tempting to address inconsistencies across the Egyptian media landscape. The expected diverse tones in addressing serious causes are fading in favor of the sole narrative of “war on terrorism.”
The narrative of the “war on terrorism” can be intensified through securitization that allows political actors to urge a sense of an “existential threat.” After declaring a security threat, it needs to be identified by the public as such. And here comes the role of media enframing, defined by Fred Vultee (2007) as the “lens through which the public can see an issue like terrorism […] as a matter best dealt with through the normal working of law enforcement and politics or as a crisis that requires extreme measures.”[2]
Issued on March 6, 2015, the annual report of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) “Obscure and Stalled: The Democratic Path in Egypt 2014” aimed to monitor the state’s performance by using different research methods. It described how the “repressive and extraordinary measures (including outlawing peaceful protests and confiscated political action) that have been taken by the Egyptian authorities” failed to “achieve the stability.” According to the report, the protests[3] escalated, and the security bodies confronted them with attacks, “tough legislations and decisions in addition to harsh verdicts that amounted to mass death sentences…” The report put the continuation of violence in the context of the authorities’ repressive performance. Without justifying violence, the report discusses how the state’s repressive policies contributed to prompting “…the militant groups to insist on using violence and terrorist operations in the face of police and army men and also against the civilian population.”
Obviously, there is a gap between the findings of the ANHRI report (and other similar reports) on one hand and the media coverage of human rights on the other. We can witness a noticeable decline in covering human rights violations under the excuse of facing threats to the national security. The most striking actor, in this context, is the media’s self-imposition of propaganda and censorship. Earlier, on August 20, 2013, in The New Yorker, Joshua Hersh noted “when the official state-run television channel puts a banner reading ‘Egypt Fighting Terrorism’ in the corner of its screen…, the private networks do so as well.” Hersh was not surprised by the return of authoritarian tendencies in Egypt, including criticism of the international media, but he was disappointed at the role of the local press “as an abettor” which was “the more dispiriting phenomenon.”[4] A number of TV hosts joined the homogeneous unified front by borrowing some propaganda techniques including “name-calling.” They described those who tend to oppose the regime or choose a clear-cut different political stance as traitors, fifth columns, sissy, pro-Muslim Brotherhood sleeper cells, etc. These hostile attitudes cast a shadow of McCarthyism over the public sphere. To make it a black and white matter, there was a tendency to simplify the complex stances of different political and intellectual groups. In this climate, framing the Egyptian Revolution as “an international conspiracy”, which used to be uttered timidly in some media outlets, turned into a more salient approach.
The pattern of self-censorship grew, after the deadly attack against security personnel in the North Sinai (located in northeastern Egypt) on 24 October 2014. “17 state and private newspapers issued a joint statement condemning ‘terrorism’ and vowing not to criticise the army or the state, and to refrain from publishing material that could incite violence and support terrorism.”[5] A similar stance was taken by the state-run Egyptian Radio and TV Union (ERTU) and the Media Industry Chamber. Subsequently, a number of media platforms renounced reviewing authorities’ performance and security policies. The escalating nationalistic sensationalism stimulated a number of TV hosts and journalists to call for putting the law aside for the sake of fighting terrorism. On 25 October, 2014, Tamer Amin, on Rotana Egypt TV, declared “… to hell with democracy and to hell with human rights when it comes to the national security of the great Egypt” Ahmed Moussa, a presenter on Sada el Balad TV[6], has become infamous for his extremely repetitive pressing for the restorations of the iron fist of the security apparatus and the “strong state.” He criminalized the protesters and urged the interior officers and officials to target them: “kill them before they kill you.” On 26 January, 2015, and during the fierce clashes between police forces and protesters in Matareya, at North Cairo, he reached a climax of incitement by announcing: “law is live ammunition…”.
On another level, in most cases, the local media also did not explore the content of the international human rights reviews. Instead, these reviews are framed as part of an “international conspiracy.” On the anniversary of the dispersal of the Raba’s Al Adaweya sit-in, which was organized by MB’s members and supporters to oppose the ousting of former president Mohamed Morsy, the Human Rights Watch issued a report based on a yearlong investigation and concluded that the “… use [of] lethal force against largely unarmed protesters on political grounds, these killings most likely amount to crimes against humanity…”[7] After three months of issuing HRW report, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) undertook a Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Egyptian human rights record. The NGOs’ report demonstrated the continuing harsh violations undertaken by the regime including “de facto criminalization of demonstrations; indefinite detention of dissidents, opposition figures, and journalists without trial; and crackdown on freedom of the press.”[8]
None of these reviews received informative (or investigative) coverage by most of the local media. Instead, a selective usage of the international context was brought into the discussion to legitimize the security policies. For instance, Lamees Al Hadeedy, a presenter on the CBC channel, “drew parallels between Egypt […] and the United States following the 9/11 attacks, when the Patriot Act was passed to give the government exceptional powers.”[9] This attitude was enhanced by local and international fears of regional instability. Their fears increased after the emergence of ISIS’ brutal crimes (including the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian workers). Locally, in Egypt, these fears contributed to the coining of the catchphrase: “At least we are better than Syria and Iraq.” Such phrases snowballed without a thorough addressing of the geopolitical complications and the role of despotism in the emerging violence and chaos of these countries. In these contexts, most of the local media promote an unconditional support for the state and its “national savior,” Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi.
A messianic rhetoric has become associated with the former defense minister and the current president, Abdel Fatah Al- Sisi since his role in the military-backed ousting of Morsy. After this event he implored Egyptians to demonstrate their support for him and to authorize him to fight “possible terrorism.” Most of the state-run and private media supported his call, glorified his image, and rallied behind him without questioning his responsibility for drastic violations of human rights.
In successive statements, and especially after another lethal attack in Sinai on 31 January 2015, Al- Sisi asserted that the media’s role is to raise moral support and avoid publishing any news that could disappoint the public. Accordingly, security and strategic failures cannot be openly discussed. But many independent journalists and analysts reject this media blackout, support the right of access to information, and improve coverage of the serious situation unfolding in Sinai by depending on local credible reporters.
Unlike most of the mainstream media, these local reporters integrate socio-political factors in their analyses and do not depend solely on the security perspective. These reporters have warned of how “…the combination of forced immigration, civilian casualties, and the capital’s continued shunting of Sinai to [the] bottom of [its] priority list, is making a dark scenario [into] an explosive one.”[10]
Currently, resisting any further deterioration of media freedoms is truly valuable. In addition to the position in Sinai, the authorities tend to stretch the media blackout, to include cases in totally different contexts, through legal orders. The General Prosecutor has banned publications in more than one case. These cases include the death of the social activist Shaimaa al-Sabbagh (who was shot and killed in a peaceful march to honor the martyrs on the fourth anniversary of the Egyptian revolution). The other case has raised wide public anger after the death of 19 football fans waiting to enter the Air Defense Stadium in a stampede that occurred after officers fired tear gas at them. Recently, there has been the death of the young lawyer Karim Hamdy, who was arrested at Matareya Police Station and charged with involvement in protests organized by Muslim Brotherhood supporters. Initial reports recorded remnants of torture on his body that might have lead to Hamdy’s death. The common factor among these cases that promoted the General Prosecutor to ban their publication, according to some observers, is the involvement of Interior Ministry officers.[11]
The unstoppable justification of the extraordinary measures undertaken by the state can threaten people’s rights and lives. Tensions and media incitement can obscure the vision for any way-out. Journalists do not have to join a unified front to defend their countries. Rather than remain manipulated into support for a repressive political system, the media must reclaim transparency and accountability to in order to help save the country and address the dissolution of basic human rights.
Notes
[1]Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q8Nz2kLeXo
[2]Vultee, F. (2007, August). Securitization: A new approach to framing and media portrayals of the “war on terror.” Paper presented to the International Communication Division, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Washington, DC
[3]In 2014, and according to ANHRI report, there was approx.1515 protest, approx 170 politicizing trials , 1473 death sentence , some of them were appealed, approx 42.000 detainees, approx.98 violations committed against journalists and media professionals, approx. 63 journalists in the Egyptian prisons , 857 civilians referred to military trials and 87 terrorist operations.
[4]Hersh, J. (2013), Egypt’s Media Counter-Revolution, The New Yorker. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/egypts-media-counter-revolution (last access March, 2015)
[5]Soliman, D. (2014), Egyptian media adopt self-censorship, BBC Monitoring. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/monitoring/egyptian-media-adopt-selfcensorship (last access March, 2015)
[6]A private TV channel owned by the businessman Muhammad Abu al- Enin, a leading member of the former ruling National Democratic Party.
[7]Egypt: Rab’a Killings Likely Crimes against Humanity (August 12, 2014) Human Rights Watch. Retrieved from http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/08/12/egypt-rab-killings-likely-crimes-against-humanity (last access at March 2015)
[8]Daniels, J (Dec.19, 2014) Egyptian Media Paints Rosy Picture of UNHRC Review of Egypt’s Human Rights Record
[9]Ibid
[10]Khalifa , A. (February 1,2015) , Sisi: Sinking Sinai. Daily News. Retrieved from http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2015/02/01/sisi-sinking-sinai/ (last access March, 2015)
[11]Lawyers defy publishing ban on colleague’s police custody death (Feb.28, 2015) Egypt Independent. Retrieved from http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/lawyers-defy-publishing-ban-colleague-s-police-custody-death (last access March 2015)