By Alexandra Sandels 

Despite the freedom of expression boundaries being pushed by the independent press and the blogging community, 2007 witnessed an upsurge in clampdowns on the press and free speech in Egypt. A retrospect of the year shows that the media climate in this North African country took a serious blow in more than one sense in the past twelve months.

CAIRO - "Egypt's government has waged a steady, yearlong offensive against the independent press. Outspoken journalists and bloggers have been detained, prosecuted, and harassed for tackling controversial stories. The country's boisterous independent press has been a source of growing concern among government officials. Its vitality and rising popularity comes at the expense of the state-run papers, which are read less and less each day," Joel Campagna, Senior Program Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa at the Washington-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), told APN.

Despite what Campagna refers to as the 'increased assertiveness of the Egyptian press', he emphasizes that CPJ has noticed 'a steady erosion of press freedoms over the last five years--a period which has seen a spike in violent assaults and criminal prosecutions against journalists'.

As a result of the allegedly hostile nature of Egypt's press environment, the national authorities have received stark criticism from international rights groups in the past year and the country has slid down to bottom rankings in the majority of indexes measuring freedom of expression around the world.

In May 2007, CPJ cited Egypt as one of the 'world's worst backsliders on press freedom', emphasizing an increase in the number of attacks on the press since 2003. Later in the year, Egypt came in at number 146 out of 169 countries evaluated in the World Press Freedom Index; an annual rating published by Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

"Most Egyptian journalists think that they are far away from prison terms, which is something they perhaps should rethink considering the jailing of several journalists in the past year," Ehab El-Zelaky, Editorial Manager at the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, told APN.

Magdi AbdelHadi, Arab Affairs Analyst at the BBC, maintains that while the overall picture of Egypt's press environment remains 'contradictory', 'the red line has been boosted a bit in terms of press freedom'.

"Today, you can read about sensitive topics in the independent press which you couldn't do a few years ago. For example, ten years ago you wouldn't be reading about alleged torture and police abuse in the Egyptian press at all. There are also certain privately owned TV channels in Egypt that enjoy greater freedom than other Arab countries, where the situation is worse," said AbdelHadi.

Year Begins With Two Prison Sentences
In January 2007, Al-Jazeera journalist Howaida Taha Mitwalli was stopped at Cairo airport by security as she tried to board a flight to Qatar, where the Al-Jazeera headquarters are located. Taha had been working on a documentary film about torture in Egypt and was supposedly stripped of her videotapes and computer.  She was sentenced to six months in prison on 2 May for "possessing and giving false pictures about the internal situation in Egypt that could undermine the dignity of the country'.

Egypt's decision to sentence 23-year old blogger Kareem Amer to prison in February sparked a fury among civil society and attracted much unwanted attention to the Egyptian authorities from international media. A critic of the leading Islamic institution al-Azhar and the Egyptian government, Amer was sentenced to a four-year prison sentence for insulting Islam and President Mubarak on his blog. The case marks the first time Egypt refers a blogger to a prison term.

Amer's lawyer Gamal Eid, who is also the director of the Cairo-based non-governmental organisation The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRInfo), stressed that 'Kareem crossed the line by criticizing Islam, the President, and the Al-Azhar institution'.

AbdelHadi suggested that the regime might have sought to 'protect its legitimacy' by sentencing Amer, thus 'demonstrating that they are tough to those criticizing religion'.

When combined with public activism, blogging becomes a particularly dangerous activity, according to Eid. In April, security officials at Cairo airport arrested Brotherhood-affiliated journalist and blogger Abdel Moneim Mahmoud as he attempted to travel to Sudan to do reporting on human rights in the Arab world.

A well-known advocate against torture practices in the country, Mahmoud was supposedly charged with belonging to the banned group the Muslim Brotherhood and for defaming the government with his reporting. He was held at various facilities including Tora prison for approximately one month before he was released. Rights groups maintain that Mahmoud's arrest was a direct result of his blog activism. 

Bloggers Under Surveillance
Despite these obstacles, Egypt's active blogosphere continues to push the red line on free speech and expose alleged human rights abuses in their country. They often break stories on controversial topics such as alleged police abuse and their activism attracts the attention of both national and independent media.

Wael Abbas, a leading blogger and anti-torture activist, was among the first to upload the infamous video clips depicting two policemen torturing and sodomizing microbus driver Emad-al Kabir with a stick at a Cairo police station in 2006. The case sparked an outcry among civil society and the two officers were sentenced to prison terms in a landmark case in November 2007.

"The blogs have proven successful here in Egypt. Newspapers can always be shut down but it's hard for the regime to control the activities of the bloggers," Abbas told APN.

The web activists have in recent time caught the attention of the authorities and numerous bloggers claim to be under surveillance and subject to harassment and intimidation. A few have even been detained and sentenced to prison for their online activities.

"They know what I'm doing on the Internet. I've received phone calls in which I was ordered to stop cooperating with human rights organizations," Abbas said.

Massive Clampdown on Media in September
The month of September witnessed a series of prison sentences imposed on members of the independent media, dealing 'new blows to freedom of expression', as rights groups put it. Adil Hamouda, Editor of the weekly Al-Fagr, Wael al-Ibrashi, of the weekly Sawt al-Umma, Abd al-Halim Qandil, former editor of the weekly Al-Karama, and Ibrahim Issa, Editor of the daily Al-Dustur were all sentenced to a one-year prison term and a fine of LE 20,000 (2,500 euro) for reportedly "publishing false information likely to disturb public order".

According to a report issued by CPJ, the case was initiated by a lawyer affiliated with the National Democratic Party, accusing the editors of defaming governmental figures and for spreading false information. Issa was also charged in a separate case by the state security prosecutor-general for putting out reports "likely to disturb public security and damage the public interest" following a series of articles in Al-Dustur that raised questions about the health of President Mubarak. New hearings in the case are reportedly scheduled for early January.

"The regime is attempting to rule back the important role the independent press has gained in the past three years," said Hisham Kassem, former publisher of Al-Masry Al-Youm and a well-known press freedom activist.

Around the same time, Al-Wafd Editor-in-Chief Anwar al-Hawari, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Mahmoud Ghalab, and the newspaper's Politics Editor Amir Salem were convicted on libel charged filed by 11 lawyers reportedly affiliated with the National Democratic Party. They received two-year prison sentences each but are free on appeal.

AbdelHadi highlights that 'there is of course a scare that the reporting of the independent press will shape and influence public opinion' given the several convictions of members of the independent press.

"The law in Egypt is applied rather selectively in a sense. The authorities remain tough on certain issues and lean on others. But in terms of curbing dissent of the regime, 'they can if they want apply undefined and broad laws', continued Abdelhadi.

In response to September's 'mass sentencing' of editors and journalists, numerous opposition and independent newspapers partook in a daylong publishing strike on 8 October as a gesture of solidarity with the convicted editors and journalists. Several prominent bloggers followed the example and refrained from their keyboards on that day.

"The state is attacking independent media because of the ground it is gaining. There are many independents available in Egypt these days and people are getting rid of the governmental newspapers and read the independent publications instead. There is a very good market share for the independent press at the moment", argued El-Zelaky.

Most recently, six insult and defamation lawsuits were brought against Wael El Ibrashi, editor-in-chief of the independent Sawt El-Omma. The lawsuits were reportedly filed by businessmen in response to articles published in Sawt El-Omma 'following legal transgressions reportedly committed by the companies ran by the businessmen'. Hearings in the case are scheduled for 28 January and 11 February 2008.

Split Views on 2008
Whether 2008 will mark another year of alleged restrictions on freedom of expression and the press in Egypt remains unknown and views on the matter are split.

"There are certain signs, such as the growth of the independent press, that something is happening. On other hand, there are events that completely contradicts that statement, like the sentencing of the four editors-in-chief," stated AbdelHadi.

Despite last year's tussles with the authorities, Al-Zelaky believes that Egypt's independent press will 'continue to flourish'. "The state is trying to set an example and scare journalists by handing out sentences like the ones we've witnessed in 2007," he stressed.

Kassem, however, argues that the events of 2007 might only be the start of something larger.

"This is the beginning of a crackdown. God knows what will happen next. It really depends on whether the independent press will stand up. Importantly, there are those people who won't simply sit there and do nothing and who will fight to express themselves," Kassem said.

As a blogger, Abbas remains skeptical saying that 'freedom of expression is definitely going down. We gained more ground for freedom of speech and freedom of the press in Egypt in 2005 and 2006, but the future looks very uncertain considering the latest crackdown on journalists and bloggers'.

One positive development could be seen at the very end of year 2007. In April, Alexandria Head Judge Abdel Fattah Mourad, had filed a lawsuit against 51 websites belonging to prominent Egyptian human rights organizations and bloggers demanding their shutdown on the basis that they 'tarnish the reputation of the Egyptian government'.

The case, also referred to as the '51 websites trial', evolved shortly after Eid's HRInfo accused Judge Mourad of violating the organization's intellectual property rights by allegedly including 50 pages of an HRinfo report on Internet blogging in his own book without citing sources or including references. In a court ruling on 29 December, the request was rejected, emphasising support for freedom of expression and the importance of not compromising the freedom of these websites as long as they do not undermine fundamental beliefs or public order.

Alexandra Sandels is a Swedish journalist who lives in Cairo and works for the Daily News Egypt, which is affiliated with the International Herald Tribune.