Features of restructuring Egyptian media map to a better one serving the current stage
Randa Attia — Egyptian Academician
From the very beginning, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has been keen on reiterating his passion for the media of the sixties. Such unidirectional media mesmerized the president of a prominent country like Egypt in the era of open global , to the point that El-Sisi envied the deceased Jamal Abdel Nasser that he had such a media .
The media file has been one of El-Sisi’s top priorities even before he announced his candidacy for presidency, for he believed in the major role, this dangerous weapon plays in reforming nations and overthrowing corrupt regimes. However, at the same time, it can be pretty destructive in case it is transformed into a trumpet supporting regimes and rulers and making them untouchable gods.
The president and his affiliates carried out systematic campaigns over the past six years, focusing on the formation of the media map in accordance with the objectives of the regime; which resulted in many waves of change, including blocking, closing and integrating, and injecting new life, to reach the optimum image finally.
Lately, it seems that another wave of restructuring will impose itself on the media system, and perhaps changing its shape significantly, because the current stage, in which public media lost its position for foreign media, requires adopting new strategies to adapt to the latest developments. So, what are the features of this strategy?
Constant attack on media
The relation between the president and the media was not good all along the way. Even though, those in charge of this entire institution were trying their best to satisfy the regime and avoid any possible clash or provocation, the first conflict took place a few months after El-Sisi took the chair, particularly on September 6, 2014.
On October 21 of the same year, El-Sisi addressed a strongly worded message to the media saying: “You media professionals, take it easy on Egyptians. People are sitting at their homes listening to you and reading what you have written. Let them have a glimpse of hope, because we are doing just fine.
During one of the armed forces educational seminars, El-Sisi gave a sarcastic speech about the way the media is handling the power outage issue, saying: “When I took a look at the newspaper I read ‘The government is outshining’. Is that the proper way to address the issue? No it is not. The solution lies in solving these issues.”
On October 21 of the same year, El-Sisi addressed a strongly worded message to the media saying: “You media professionals, take it easy on Egyptians. People are sitting at their homes listening to you and reading what you have written. Let them have a glimpse of hope, because we are doing just fine. Not as much as we are expecting, because we have high expectation. You need to have a general context to tackle, which is to preserve the Egyptian state,” said El-Sisi during his participation in the Ship Flagpoles contest in Alexandria.
The same thing happened again in November 2015 while commenting on the crisis of the flood in the streets of Alexandria. El-Sisi asserted: “One of the journalists said how the president could sit with Simens while Alexandria is drowning. It is very difficult and inappropriate. What are you doing is inappropriate! You are torturing me merely for standing here!”.
The clash escalated reaching the peak when he called the Egyptian people to listen only to him, during a speech he gave at the inauguration of the sustainable development strategy “Egypt 2030” on 24 February, 2016. But, his statement was met with strong condemnation and cynicism. This might alert a new phase of media discourse having the president as the only speaker.
The man also moved from criticizing the content to urging the creation of another kind of content, when he called the media to start a “phobia” among Egyptian people making them fear overthrowing the Egyptian State and protecting Egypt from falling. He also stressed the state’s readiness to support the production of a cinematic work to confront what he described as attempts to demolish and weaken the State during the fourth periodic conference of youth in Alexandria, in July 2016.
Failed map
The Egyptian media has been subject to many changes after the 25 of January revolution, and divided into several axes. It actually combined Mubarak’s legacy with the repercussions of the revolution, and then the pillars of the counter-revolution, according to the Egyptian writer Ashraf Abdel Maksoud, who confirmed that the map was marred by many developments.
The first axis is the legacy of Mubarak, formed by a group of businessmen who are good at manipulating different parties at once, namely Mohamed El-Amin, Al-Sayyid Al-Badawī and the Kahki family, along with the empire of Tarek Nour and his partners.
The second axis is an extension of the first, as it includes businessmen too, but who are supported by the security establishment. This axis is led by Ahmed Abu Hashima, former Chairman of the Egyptian Media Company, and consists of Yasser Selim, Chairman of the Board of Black and White, and Tarek Ismail, the owner of D Media, along with Ehab Talaat, the one experienced in channel management and marketing, said Abdel Maqsoud during an interview with Noon Post. He added that this axis managed to enjoy privileges no other team has ever earned over the past decades.
It seems that the old version of the map has not borne fruit, prompting the regime to further tighten its grip
This axis has gradually evolved into launching a new axis, which included a number of military staff, some of whom are newly engaged in the field of media, led by Mohamed Samir, former Military Spokesman for the Egyptian Armed Forces and Director of Al-Asema TV Channel, and Ahmed Shaaban, a former army officer and Director of the Office of Major General Abbas Kamel, the Head of the General Intelligence Service.
Hard Landing
It seems that the old version of the map has not borne fruit, prompting the regime to further tighten its grip, by enacting a number of laws, aiming, in the first place, to tie the hands of media professionals and lowering the freedoms to its the lowest level.
The set of laws the Egyptian authorities have issued over the past two years can put the country at the bottom of international press freedom ranks in the world, according to the member of the General Assembly of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, Amira Salah, who denounced the state’s involvement in the war against the media.
Salah told Noon Post that the list of sanctions imposed by the new press law is enough to write an official death certificate for the media in Egypt, in addition to the formation of an official censor called Supreme Council for Media Regulation (SCMR) having two chambers: “National Media Authority” and “National Press Authority”. Thus, these measures are capable of bringing up the pre-fifties media not only the sixties’ that El-Sisi is wishing to restore.
Dozens of media professionals were victims to the Council and the law alike; as some of them were imprisoned and taken to detention centers and others were fired and subject to payroll cuts. Dozens of programs were suspended and many channels were closed, until the scene reached a black image that media in Egypt has never witnessed before.
Critical Stage
In the past few years, amid the absence of transparency and waiting for official instructions, the Egyptian anti-president media had several pitfalls. The citizens were forced to roam between foreign channels and agencies, which have become the Egyptian community’s favorites.
Many of practical tests were enough for both the public and private Egyptian media to present their credentials to the community, but they gave up the only opportunity they had, allowing their competitors, the foreign channels, to shine. The first footage of Egypt station incident, for example, was broadcasted on Reuters and Al-Jazeera before the Egyptian Television.
With the escalation of political and economic events, and the imposition of the same developments on the scene, the situation has become very critical and dangerous.
This is in addition to the apparent blackout and complete disregard of the viewer’s mentality in providing media material which commensurates with his level of awareness. This has driven the audience to abandon these means and search for another, giving the regime a violent shake. The situation has pushed the regime to reconsider media policy and try to inject new life after the viewer has lost confidence in the existent names that have previously enjoyed great number of fans.
With the escalation of political and economic events, and the imposition of the same developments on the scene, the situation has become very critical and dangerous. Indeed, the search for an alternative to restore the lost trust of the public is very important, especially after foreign media succeeded in largely affecting the regime by revealing some aspects of its corruption and violations against the people, which caused a clear imbalance in the state’s administrative mentality.
New strategy
“I must thank you Rami, you are a good and respectful personality. This is the new generation that we are talking about. A generation that works, (stutter) and this is wonderful. Every time it is used to take two hours or two and a half hours with me in the questions. This time Rami was nice with me and said one hour and a half is enough,” this is how El-Sisi praised interviewer Rami Radwan during the “Ask the President” session at the youth conference, held last July as the official launch of new changes in the Egyptian media system.
The starting point in this new phase was the change of media personnel in one of the security services that oversees this file, and the replacement of one of those responsible for the file with another one who is very close to El-Sisi, reported al-Manassa website from media sources. These also revealed that those changes were reflected in a set of decisions: the first of which was the formation of a centralized preparation team for major talk show programs.
One of the features of this phase is the exclusion of certain names from the scene and the use of new ones, in an attempt to draw a different image of names and figures that do not have a negative perception on the viewer.
Last September, all the preparation teams of four programs of channels belonging to the United Company for Media Services, namely al-Hayat al-Youm, Koll Youm, Houna al-Asima and DMC evening, were surprised by their invitation to a meeting with the content editing administration at the United Company for Media Services. They have been informed about new organizational decisions, the most important of which is the work following a new system for the preparation teams, under the name of central preparation.
This method means “the selection of four producers, two of whom are fixed and the two others are “rotated,” two days at al-Hayat TV, two days at ON TV, and two days at CBC channel. “For example, the producer works on Saturday and Sunday at al-Hayat al-Youm, on Monday and Tuesday in Koll Youm program on ON TV… and so on,” explained one of the producers of al-Hayat al-Youm talk show on al-Hayat TV.
One of the features of this phase is the exclusion of certain names from the scene and the use of new ones, in an attempt to draw a different image of names and figures that do not have a negative perception of the viewer, in addition to the gradual elimination of Mubarak’s journalists. This was made clear with the elimination of Lamis Elhadidy, Ibrahim Eissa and Mahmoud Saad before his return with very little presence, besides the journalist Osama Kamal, who is close to El-Sisi himself.
The elimination was not limited to journalists, but reached the prevention of certain names from frequently appearing in the media, because the regime considers their appearance poses a threat against it. These include sports player Reda Abdel Aal, who was always criticizing the corruption of the Egyptian Football Federation and the national team, in addition to the prevention of composer Amr Mostafa and the reduction of the appearance of the Minister of Health as much as possible, according to al-Manassa website.
The features of the media scene in its new form, which was proposed to suit the new phase, started to be unveiled day after day. However, it carries with it huge disasters, which will not only largely affect the media system, but will throw thousands of workers in this field into the pit of unemployment and sidewalks, according to the media researcher Ali al-Khidri.
This is apart from repeated talks about the suspension of some newspapers and keeping one or two publications for each publishing house, with the replacement of publications with websites, in order to save expenses; which were met with a strong attack from the staff of these newspapers.
Al- Khidri revealed in an interview with Noon Post that the changes the regime is working on combine mostly two things: the first is the reduction of expenditures as much as possible, and the second is the creation of a unified media discourse that will support the State’s official orientations and the nucleus to counter the media campaigns launched by the foreign media. He also clarified that these changes revolve around three basic pillars:
First: The press, which in turn is divided into two branches : one is related to the national state-owned newspapers. Here, the size of the expected amendments has started to be gradually revealed, on top of which is the integration of media publications issued by those publishing houses (Dar El Tahrir, Dar Al Ahram, Dar Al Akhbar) and the reduction of their number as much as possible, knowing that the three companies have more than 40 issues.
This is apart from repeated talks about the suspension of some newspapers and keeping one or two publications for each publishing house, with the replacement of publications with websites, in order to save expenses. But, these measures were met with a strong attack from the staff of these newspapers, especially since most of them will not find a place to work in, in case the decision is implemented.
The second type of press is private and independent newspapers. The same fate is inevitable. Some are closed and others are merged into one media group, as happened with the newspapers of al-Dustour, Sout al-Omma, and others. Other newspapers are under strong pressure that might push them to be closed soon, knowing that more than 500 websites have been blocked in the last two years only, according to human rights data.
As for private channels, the regime is moving at an accelerated pace, as it went beyond the monitoring of specific channels or interference in the content of popular programs, and reached the launch of its own channels.
Second: Television… Like the press, television is divided into two axes: State-owned television Maspero, which is now under severe attack and harsh criticism under the guise of the billion-pound losses it is facing, prompting the authorities to discuss the idea of reducing the number of its channels and employees. This is, in addition to its abandonment in the media and the move to other more popular channels, which explains the specialization of specific programs in revealing leaks of the General Intelligence and the intervention of the President at a time when the state television suffers from scarcity of the presented media materials.
As for private channels, the regime is moving at an accelerated pace, as it went beyond the monitoring of specific channels or interference in the content of popular programs, and reached the launch of its own channels, which is reflected by the intelligence-owned DMC channels group. This is in addition to the study of the idea of merging channels into a few groups under the control of a sovereign security apparatus that would control their presented content and monopolize the message and media discourse.
Third: social media websites. The critical phase the current regime in Egypt is facing requires a back-up of online campaigns capable of countering attacks by social media pioneers who have found no way to express their views except for the open space after all other conventional ways have been closed in front of them.
The ruling authorities in Egypt are aware of the danger of the so-called “cyber warfare,” a war that they clearly lost following the recent crisis of artist Mohamed Ali’s leaks. Hence, there is a great tendency towards launching a strong electronic entity that would be ready to respond and deal with such campaigns in times of crisis.
Overall, media freedom seems to be the first and greatest victim of such changes, which are intended only to protect the regime, praise it and convey its own messages to the people without any other standards of freedom, code of honor and professionalism. All this, according to some, may officially end the course of the Egyptian media.
