Introduction
Egypt is one of the most influential countries in the Arab world. It has a lot of influence on what is going on in the Arab world and so is its media. Media is the means through which news and information happening around the world is made known to the people through various media vehicles and channels (Anderson 120).
The media of Egypt is very influential to the Arab world because of its large audience. The Egypt media is very important in ensuring that the citizens of Egypt receive both national and international news at the right time. It arouses the consciousness of the people and brings all Egyptians together at a single platform. News media in Egypt are of different varieties and they can be distinguished depending on the branch of media.
The main mediums of communicating to the people in Egypt is through newspapers, magazines, news agencies and websites. Some of the most popular newspapers and periodicals in Egypt include the Akhbar al-Adab, Akher Sa, Al-Ahali among others (Sriramesh 67). For a long time there have been a lot of struggles by media owners in the Arab world to free themselves from government influence and disturbance.
Arabs are very strict people and this strictness has been applied in media for a long time even though the situation has changed and is continuing to change due to the increased empowerment and awareness. Media in Egypt is now free from government interference and control.
The constitution of Egypt guarantees freedom of media and the government is increasingly showing respect to this even though there are still several laws that restrain it. The minister of information in Egypt declared an era of a free, transparent and independent media in Egypt (Sriramesh 98).
Historical background and printing press
The history of Arabic media and press can be dated back so many years. The freedom of press in Arab media can however be dated back to only the last century and the freedom of media has been determined by the interaction of several factors such as political and social cultures. One of the most important political factors that influenced media was the Arab nationalism. It ensured that Egypt was independent of the French and British empires.
he development of the press has also been influenced by increased population and economic stability which is got from petrol as well as the increased competition between media owners. In the eighteenth century, the media that existed in Egypt was the newspaper which was used as a source or form of authority by Turkey (Anderson 134). The Arab written press which was independent of the government control appeared in the nineteenth century in Egypt (Anderson 134).
Egypt had a more advanced and developed media and therefore the Lebanese journalists travelled to Egypt to take advantage of the more developed written press (Anderson 134). The journalists launched newspapers in the name of past Arab glory and these newspapers became models for the Arab press (Sriramesh 137).
Due to pressure from people, the restrictions imposed on publication and production of newspapers were lifted and this was the beginning of the development of independent presses in Egypt. In 1909 for example there emerged almost one hundred and forty four newspapers in Egypt and ninety reviews in Cairo (Sriramesh 137).
During the first and second world wars, several political parties that came up in Egypt formed their presses to champion for independence. This made the press to become a very privileged instrument in the fight for national independence (Bowker 198). The revolution in Egypt brought an end to independent presses. The president at that time eradicated the multi party system and nationalized the press (Sriramesh 139).
In the periods of 1960 to 1980 the press experienced lack of freedom and independence and the only journalists who could write freely were those who were in Europe. Nationalizing the press was the beginning of the suffering of journalists who were continually tortured and brutally treated for their views and opinions. The person who first introduced the printing press in Egypt is called Napoleon Bonaparte (Sterling 156).
He was a campaigning for French in Egypt and Syria. His first printing press was in French but when he went to Egypt he introduced an Arabic printing press. These presses were of better quality and speed than the presses which were used in Istanbul. Istanbul was the only country which carried out printing in the whole of the Arab world before Napoleon introduced another printing press in Egypt
Background and general characteristics of media in Egypt
Egypt is one of the most influential countries in the Middle East or the Arab world. Its influence is justified by its large extents of land and coverage. The stability of Egypt also makes it a very influential country in this region. It is economically stable because it engages in a lot of trading activities and farming activities such as irrigation which produces a large amount of exports and feeds the people of Egypt too.
It is also socially and culturally stable with the presence of different diversity of cultures. It is also a tourist destination because of the presence of the great pyramids. All these factors make Egypt a very strong country and hence its influence in that region. Egypt has a large population who are mostly Muslims. Only half of the Egyptian people are literate and less than forty percent of them are women.
Egypt is the home of the great River Nile. It is also located at the Northern end of the Red Sea and the North Eastern side of the Mediterranean sea. All these factors favor Egypt against other Arab countries (LLC 65). Egypt might be poorly located but this same location has worked towards its advantage. It has been home of many conferences, meetings and discussions which have been held in the capital which is Cairo (Sterling 89).
Most of the conferences and meetings have been towards finding and maintaining peace in the Middle East. Egypt therefore commands a great deal of media attention because of all the activities that are carried out in its capital and also because of its stability in the region. This means that the media of Egypt is very developed and advanced because of the constant attention that Egypt is receiving and also because of Egypt’s status and nature in the Arab world.
Egypt civilization has been a contributing factor to the development of media in Egypt. This is because it has led to a lot of developments and urban technology in Egypt which warrant the attention of media and hence developing the media in the process. Civilization led to introduction of irrigation in Egypt along the River Nile which was able to provide food that sustained the whole of Egypt until today (Sterling 105).
The whole irrigation process and how it sustains the country has been largely documented by the media of Egypt and broadcasted all over the world. This process has helped in improving the status of Egyptian media and also improving the image of the country. The landscape of media in Egypt has only two sides unlike those of other countries (LLC 72).
The landscape is either defined for or against a particular concept or people. This is because of the heightened control that the government has had on media. This has however been challenged by the growth and development of publications that are working independently.
Independent publications have little or no control from the government and therefore their content and opinion are more diverse and not only two sided like before. Today there are over two hundred media sources in Egypt that are working independently (Sterling 101). The reason for the sudden rise of independent publications is because of the loyalty and love of investigative journalism by journalists.
Another reason is because they are able to provide information that is diverse and does not target a particular party line only. Most of these publications are not published in Egypt. They are published outside and then brought back to Egypt to be read.
Ownership and economic environment in which Egyptian media operates
Most of media in Egypt is owned by the government. The printed media in Egypt is categorized into state owned media, party owned media, domestic licensed independent media and foreign licenced independent media. Printed media is therefore has no freedom in Egypt because it is overseen by the government.
The three major daily Egyptian newspapers are the Al-Ahram, the Al-Akhbar and the Al-Gumhuriya (Bowker 107). The Egyptian government owns a controlling share in these three newspapers that are produced on a daily basis. These newspapers are given little censorship or not censored at all because the editors of the newspapers are appointed by the president.
The editors are therefore very loyal to the state and they put the interests of the state first because they are appointed and working in for a newspaper that is owned by he state. Al-Ahram is the largest of the three newspapers and it is also the largest Arabic newspaper in the world. An institute of journalism has been established in its name so that it can help journalists to be at par with the current trends in journalism (Bowker 109).
The closest competition to state owned media is the party owned media which also experiences little or no censorship because of the influence of their owners in government or in the state in general. The political parties in Egypt have the right to establish their own press that publish their own newspapers.
The state still has a sense of control over the party owned media because they provide subsidies towards the publications and they ensure a little censorship towards the presses owned by parties. Most of the party publications are produced weekly. Egypt does not encourage independently owned presses because of the suppressing rules and regulations towards them and therefore such presses are very rare in Egypt.
There are therefore very few publications that fit into this category. Having an independently licensed press is very expensive to established and it takes a rigorous process to be cleared by the authorities. The state therefore has control over them. Most of these publications are done off shore and hence domestic publications in this category are very rare.
Foreign licensed publications on the other hand have to adhere to certain rules and regulations especially those in the constitution such as restrictions to establishing newspapers to entities and political parties. Some publications that are owned by Egyptians usually register abroad in countries where there are less restrictions and then the publications are shipped back in the country for Egyptians to read them.
People carry out offshore publications because the process of getting a license to publish in Egypt is very rigorous and expensive and there is too much restriction. With offshore publications there is little or no interference and control by the state even though the publications are usually screened so as to ensure the stability of the region.
Almost all newspapers and magazines in Egypt are printed by a printing house owned by the government. The government owns seven printing houses in Egypt. The control that government has over the region’s publishing helps it to reduce the limit the output and access of influential groups. The Egyptian press can be said to be controlled by the state
How free are the media or press in Egypt
Every country has certain laws that are specific to the media and they control the activities carried out by media owners. The media in Egypt as earlier stated is owned by the state. The state is also he one that makes laws. There are three laws that will limit the activity of media houses in Egypt. These are the press laws, the publication laws and the penal code (Haroutunian 211).
These laws govern issues of press and they also determine the terms of imprisonment and fines that are to be imposed on media houses that go against any rules and regulations regarding publications or those that criticize the president, members of the government and foreign heads of states. These media laws ensure that media houses act ethically and that they do not misbehave. The state also censors most of the media and press.
Little censorship is given to editors who are working for state owned presses because they serve the interests of the state. A lot of censorship is however given to presses which are independently owned because they have a sense of freedom and can easily publish anything even if it is not in the interest of the state.
New Agencies in media are very rare in Egypt because they find it difficult to get licensed for their activities in Egypt due to the inherent government control. There is a very close relationship between the state of the press in Egypt. This is due to the close monitoring of media by the government and most of he presses and publications being owned by the government. The state therefore has a great influence in media and publications in Egypt
Print and electronic media in Egypt
There are a lot of television and radio stations in Egypt. Egyptians have close to eight million televisions and almost twenty million radios (Anderson 156). There are ninety eight television stations and forty two AM and fourteen FM radio stations. These stations are under an umbrella cover called the Egyptian Radio and Television Union which works closely with the Ministry of Information (Anderson 156).
These two institutions work together so that they can operate effectively all the eight owned television stations in Egypt, two satellite stations and nineteen local regional stations (Anderson 156). The first satellite to be launched in Egypt was the Nile Sat which was meant to broadcast Egyptian TV and radio from North America to the Persian Gulf (Anderson 157).
A privately owned satellite was also recently launched and it is called the Dream TV. Egypt has also made improvement in technology by making sure that there is maximum internet access by its people as compared to other Arabic countries. There are over fifty internet service providers in Egypt for many users who are able to view the newspapers online.
The government has constantly encouraged the usage of internet among its people over the last few years. This is because the internet is affordable ton use and also easily accessible.
The internet is usually used for political opposition, blogging and debates. The media can also use the internet to publish stories that are not allowed in the print media. The Egyptian radio broadcasting dates back in the twenties and they were only local then. The radio broadcasting was later nationalized by the Egyptian Government. Private stations have however developed recently
Conclusion
Despite the revolutions of media in Egypt, the freedom of media is still limited and publications are still carefully screened by the government. The state owns most of the media of Egypt and therefore it has a great influence in what is being published and what is being broadcasted in the media.
Constant awareness and revolutions by journalists have however led to reduced levels of control by the government and even though the media does not have much freedom, it is not as restricted as it was during he single party era. Media in Egypt has therefore come a long way and it is even going further due to several developments and improvements
Works Cited
Anderson, Jon. New media in the Muslim world: the emerging public sphere. Indiana: Indiana University Press. 2003. Print
Bowker, Robert. Egypt and the Politics of Change in the Arab Middle. Boston: Edward Elgar Publishing. 2010. Print
Haroutunian, Mourad. Media, politics, and religion in Egypt: an analysis of the impact of the relationship between government and religion on Egyptian media content, 1950-1995. Michigan: University of Michigan Press. 2008. Print
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Sriramesh, Krishnamurthy. The global public relations handbook: theory, research, and practice. New York: Taylor and Francis. 2009. Print
Sterling, Christopher. Encyclopedia of journalism. California: SAGE. 2009. Print