“Egyptian Media between Accountability and Credibility” Panel Discussion with Prominent Media Figures

The Canada Egypt Business Council (CEBC) hosted a special event and panel discussion featuring some of Egypt’s most celebrated media gurus Emad Adib, Abdel Halim Kandil and Magdy El Gallad. The event was held to discuss the role of Egyptian media and the challenges it is facing in this critical period.

The event is the eighth in a series of events addressing economic and political issues pertaining to Egypt after the revolution. Over 270 notable attendees were present at the event from ministers, ambassadors, CEBC members and guests, among whom was Minister of Scientific Research Dr. Nadia Zakhary, Head of the National Council for Sports, Mr. Emad El Banany, Counselor Yehia El Gamal, Dr. Ibrahim Fawzy, Dr. Ahmed Darwish, Dr. Amr Ezzat Salama, Ambassador Moshira Khatab, Dr. Sameh Farid, Ambassador Mohamad Oraby, H.E. Mohamed El Sawy, Dr. Ali Mosselhy, Dr. Zahi Hawass and Counselor Adly Hussein. Also present were ambassadors of Tunisia, Jordan, and the United Kingdom among numerous other public figures and renowned businessmen.
CEBC Chairman, Mr. Motaz Raslan, delivered the opening remarks for the discussion expressing his sincere condolences to Egypt for the passing away of Pope Shenouda III, who was the Coptic Orthodox Church head for over four decades with unforgettable patriotic stands to fight sectarian strife among the Egyptian community and was revered and respected by Egypt’s Christians and Muslims alike.
In his remarks, he highlighted that one of the most pressing issues that are at the center of every Egyptian’s attention is the credibility of the media pinpointing the wave of commercial news media that many satellite channels are part of, where “the most important element is the size of viewership and readership”

Citing outrageous examples of when the media played a detrimental role in the country, Raslan criticized the increased yellow journalism particularly the polarization of Christians and Muslims and media reports that aimed at inciting one faction of society against the other. “Media created two teams: one fearing for the security of his nations and the other greedy and rabid and both teams are not fit to lead the country into revival”. Raslan quoted prominent thinker Ahmed Kamal Aboulmagd, saying that media is the soft power, which can lead the development of society or contribute to sinking it in unending turmoil. Raslan concluded his word highlighting the urgency of improving the media apparatuses and working towards making them a catalyst of Egypt’s development.

Abdel Halim Kandil, Editor-in-Chief of Sout El Omma daily newspaper (The Voice of the Nation) was a strong opponent of the former regime criticizing it openly in his writings, and subsequently suffered much, he is also one of the founders of Kefaya movement, the first movement that called for a change in power in Egypt long before the revolution. He held the position of its General Coordinator and is currently the movement’s spokesperson. Kandil spoke of the historical significance of the time that Egypt is going through, speaking of the Pope, he pointed out that the sorrow the country is witnessing testifies to the unity of its factions as Muslims and Christians.
Speaking about media, Kandil sees that a neutral media is mythical and that it is impossible to isolate the media practitioner from the subject on whom he or she is reporting, thus, it is more correct to speak of the objectivity of the media and the accuracy of the information it provides. He added that the media is the closest work field to politics, and is consequently a reflection of all its characteristics and that the struggle is inevitably part of human living. “The objective of a society is to go through the struggle and the continuous jostling with the least amount of damage,” Kandil said.

Kandil noted that efforts towards discussing the objectivity of the media were pointless under the former regime, “There was no politics and consequently no media”, he explained. He said that the majority of media outlets had a single viewer, listener and reader, which was the ruler, with two types of media remaining still, one that is state-owned and the other owned by business tycoons, and that both naturally defended the interests of the bankroller before anything. He noted that media outlets which were dissident to this majority, contributed to reviving the nation through the revolution, “They raised the censorship ceiling to the sky,Nand not to the sole of his excellence, the president’s shoe,” said Kandil.

Speaking of the present, Kandil said that the battle for freedom of press is ongoing and that there are efforts to downsize the freedom, the media already obtained and to constrain it to the former regime’s boundaries. He said that, Sout El Omma, was confiscated three times in a period of nine months, shortly before the revolution and once more after the revolution, through the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF). He said that the tactic, which the former regime used in such practices, is similar to murder using a firearm equipped with a sound silencer. He explained saying that it is a tactic unique to Egypt, where confiscation takes place without the legal procedures required to confiscate a publication, which requires a judicial decision. He said that this reoccurred for several TV shows recently, as well.
Kandil pointed to three indispensible guarantors of freedom of press: freedom of publishing a newspaper, a penal code that does not include imprisonment as one of the possible sentences in publishing crimes and a law that guaranteed the transparency of information. He said that Egypt currently has 25 articles that allow imprisonment in publishing crimes. He also said that journalists still do not have access to public documents and their sources are usually based on a word of mouth, or through leaked documents from an institution or the other.
Speaking of the judiciary system, he said that it is not as independent and as untainted as people wish to believe. He said that while there are independent judges, others change verdicts upon a simple phone call from influential figures in power. He cited a case, which he was part of, one that is known as ‘The Editor-in-Chiefs’ case, where the law was breached on all stages of litigation, in order to accept the case in the first place. From his point of view, Kandil sees that there are three steps towards achieving freedom of press: freeing its ownership, creating an organizational framework for media and that competition among media outlets becomes a competition for the trust of the reader and not the favor of the ruler as it used to be.

After his eloquent analysis, Kandil left the floor to Magdy El Gallad who is currently heading El Watan newspaper, he is also a lecturer at El Sharqia University and hosts a TV show dubbed “Lazem Nefham”. El Gallad sees that the Egyptian media is the product of numerous factors, which did not affect the media alone, but also other walks of life. He said that there is a process of “leveling” the Egyptian mind with an attempt to unify people’s thoughts on issues and keep them always surface deep. In explanation of the factors, El Gallad spoke of the origins of Egyptian media saying that it was never an entity independent from the former regime, but an inseparable part of it. He added that Egypt only had, what was then called ‘formal media’ – meaning state-owned media, until early or mid-nineties.
He sees that just as the political system was a nominal democracy, so was the freedom of press nominal, it was an amount of freedom, set by the ruler, for cosmetic purposes, before the international community and those who would surpass that ceiling, stipulated by the regime, such as Abdel Halim Kandil, were subject to its punishment. He said that since the media is a reflection of the political system in place, the problem naturally remains as we still suffer from an unbalanced political regime at the current time.

Another problem that El Gallad sees is the unbalanced relationship between the capital and content, in the case of privately owned media. He said that this is a result of lacking in the laws that regulate this issue. In addition to that, El Galad attributed the problem to the deformed capitalism experience, which Egypt had. He sees that Egypt has not experienced national capitalism, which served the welfare of the country therefore, when businessmen launched media outlets, they did not hold the welfare of the country as their priority, but their own. The final problem is the lack of professionalism among media practitioners, which is a direct consequence of the failure of education apparatuses in the country and as a result, instead of the media affecting and forming public awareness, the media is using the language of the street and is brought down to its level.
El Gallad concluded his word proposing the following solutions to the problem, saying that, firstly, there has to be recalibrating of the forms of proprietary of privately and state-owned media. Secondly, there has to be a number of set causes, which would be the focus of the media’s attention where these causes are to be stipulated by the elite of Egypt’s thinkers. “Reforming education, which is prerequisite to any form of development, is the third arm of the solution”, fourthly and finally, he said that a legislation reform is mandatory for the improvement of the state of the media.
Emad Adib then assumed the floor. Adib has a celebrated career in the media; his career started as a journalist and culminated in his ownership of a renowned publishing house. He now hosts a show called “Behodoo’’ (literally calmly). In contradiction with his predecessors, he pointed out to the audience, that it is the decision-maker after 30 June of the current year, which should be the focus of attention. 30 June of this year is when a civil president assumes power in Egypt, as SCAF hands over power to him or her, after the presidential elections have taken their course. He added that both media and advertisements will be a factor in forming the outcome of the presidential race. “The amount of money that is projected to be spent on the presidential elections, from within and without Egypt, exceeds 1.5 billion Egyptian pounds in some estimates,” Adib said. He deduced from his eye-opening statistic that whoever owns the funds will be the true decision-maker in the process. He also mentioned, in witty sarcasm, the undignifying bribes, with which votes and notarizations are purchased from people. “Therefore, I would like to tell you the good news. The people will not choose the coming president. You will not choose the coming president,” he said. He added that for the future president, to have to collect fund that amount to over a billion Egyptian pound, will have to pledge his allegiance to his generous funders.
He continued to say that one of the problems the media is facing now is that it is being dragged in battles peripheral to the main issue at hand. He added that there is confusion among many now between an opinion and a piece of news; between an impression and a fact. He moved on to talk about a phenomenon, which he dubbed “the activist media person”, saying that such cadre should not be found except in media outlets that are explicitly affiliated to a specific faction of the political spectrum and he cited Fox Channel as one example. He added that in agreement with both previous speakers, there cannot be complete neutrality in journalism, while there should be professionalism that stipulates objectivity. In the absence of both aspects, Adib deduced “we are living a phase in which news media…is forging the will of the people.”

Before the floor was open for questions, Loula Zaklama, a PR guru and a prominent businesswoman in the region, said a few words on news media. Zaklama pointed out the absence of mechanisms that hold different media outlets accountable for the information they provide and she asked the speakers on what they thought should be done to create such mechanisms. Kandil said that the law is the answer, a law that conforms to international standards on the subject, and the rule of that law, Kandil added. In regards to the same question, Adib said that as long as there has not been a judicial verdict deeming a person guilty of a specific crime, one should not accuse him or her of it in the papers. He added that this is a moral code, which one does not just learn in college, but should be instilled in him well before that.

In conclusion to the discussion, Kandil said that the right to vote, is one of few rights Egyptians earned themselves through the revolution. He added that whatever the outcome of they Egyptian vote is, it is theirs to own. He said that the experience of choosing their ruler is in itself a great gain. Indeed, whether they will renew their vote to that candidate or not, is secondary to the bigger picture, which says that the Egyptian people have found their way to the path towards democracy, and have started to tread on it, even if for the time being not as steadily, as one would hope for.