"His announcement and comments amount to a declaration of war on the broadcast media and, in particular, independent satellite TV stations that dare to criticize the Supreme Council's policies. It is very disturbing that the council regards news media as sources of 'harm to the country's security and stability,'" RWB added.
The group said, "It is a return to the past, to the era of the ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak. Since taking over after Mubarak's removal, the Supreme Council has repeatedly taken decisions that negatively affect media freedom in Egypt, endangering something that Egyptians fought hard for during their 18-day uprising."
The crackdown has affected scores of individual journalists as well as journalistic institutions.
Here are several examples - though the list is far from complete.
Imad Bazzi, a Lebanese blogger who is the founder of the Arab Blogging Forum, was denied entry at Cairo airport last week and deported after being told he had been "blacklisted" as a security concern.
A popular TV personality, Dina Abd-Al Rahman, was fired as a presenter of the Dream TV program, "Sabah Dream," following an altercation on the air with a former air force officer, Abd Al-Monem Kato. Many online commentators and activists have expressed their outrage about her dismissal, describing Dream TV owner Ahmed Bahgat, an ally of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces as a businessman opposed to media freedom on his own TV channel. While there is no evidence that the council had a role in her dismissal, the military has taken direct action against journalists on many occasions in recent months.
For example, a fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds was imposed on Kareem Reda, who writes the blog Sarkha, was upheld on appeal. The blogger was fined as a result of a suit by Petrograde, a natural gas company, that accused him of defaming and insulting the company, damaging its interests and trying to harm the national economy because he launched a page on Facebook calling on people to boycott its services and not pay their gas bills it as long as it continued to export gas to Israel at below-market prices.
Maikel Nabil Sanad, a blogger and conscientious objector, was sentenced to three years in prison on 10 April for posting a report on his blog disputing the apparent neutrality of the armed forces during the January and February demonstrations and accusing them of arresting and torturing protesters.
He was convicted of insulting the armed forces, spreading false information and disturbing public order. He began a hunger strike in Cairo's Al-Marg prison on 23 August despite suffering from heart problems. He subsequently stopped drinking as well, with the result that he had to be rushed to the prison infirmary. He insists that he will resume the hunger strike regardless of the outcome.
Another blogger, Botheina Kamel, was summoned by a military court for interrogation on 15 May after she criticized the armed forces in a program on Nile TV.
The blogger Hossam Al-Hamalawy and journalists Rim Magued and Nabil Sharaf Al-Din were interrogated on 31 May for nearly three hours about their appearances on the station ON-TV. Speaking on Magued's program on 26 May, Al-Hamalawy accused military police of violating human rights.
The next day, Al-Din talked about the chances of an alliance between the Muslim Brotherhood and the army as part of a political transition.
Rasha Azab, a reporter for the newspaper Al-Fajr, and Adel Hammuda, its editor, were interrogated by a military prosecutor on 19 June and were told they are to be tried because an article Azab wrote for Al-Fajr's 12 June issue. Azab is facing a possible jail sentence for publishing "false information liable to disturb public security" while Hammuda is facing a possible fine for alleged negligence in his role as editor.
Hassan Bahgat, 70, a former army officer who used to head ABC's Cairo bureau, was sentenced to six months in prison by a military court on 17 August on a charge of "chanting anti-army slogans liable to defame the armed forces" in Tahrir Square at 1 a.m. on 6 August. The sentence was suspended but it could be activated at any time.
A smear campaign has meanwhile been launched in the government media against Egyptian NGOs that get funding from the United States. It is targeting only those that criticize the Supreme Council and poses a threat to many national human rights organizations.
Mohamed Abdel Dayem, the CPJ's Middle East and north Africa program coordinator, summed up the current state of play: "For months now, the ruling Supreme Military Council of the Armed Forces has been going to great lengths to hamstring the media and snuff out critical reporting. As the self-proclaimed guardian of the revolution, the military council ought to facilitate the work of long-silenced voices in the media instead of shutting them down and threatening them with repressive state security proceedings."
But this is unlikely to happen any time soon. The generals who sit on the Supreme Council are generals; they tend to know little about the need for press freedom. Indeed, they seem to fear it. Moreover, they know little about governing. They also appear to have great difficulty actually hearing what their constituents are telling them; a major reason is that they don't regard the heroes of Tahrir Square as constituents.
And we should remember that all of these men were Mubarak's military comrades. It must pain them greatly to see their fellow soldier being tried in open court for murder and corruption. It would appear that this was at least one of their motivations in closing the Mubarak court proceedings to the press.
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