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Communication » Media » Egypt: Media System

Egypt: Media System




Egypt occupies a leading political and cultural role in the Arab world as the region’s most populous state, with 72.6 million inhabitants. Until 1914, Egypt officially belonged to the Ottoman Empire. However, British economic and geopolitical interests in the region turned Egypt into a semi-colony from 1882 to 1952. The ongoing struggle for independence culminated in the Free Officers Revolution in 1952, which established a nationalist regime. Islam plays a minor but visible role in official politics and legislation. Despite Egypt formally being a parliamentary democracy, the authoritarian president pulls the political strings.

Since 1954, only three presidents have ruled Egypt, each of them shaping the media system differently. Gamal Abdel Nasser (1954 –1970) used the media as an instrument of political mobilization within the strategy of promoting Arab nationalism. Anwar al-Sadat’s (1970 –1981) politics of liberalization opened up space for party papers. Hosni Mubarak (since 1981) still expects media to support the regime’s politics but came to meet the Egyptian business elites’ interests to invest in new media and information technologies. Therefore, Egypt’s media system is in a transitional stage. Strong media competition in the Arab world during the 1990s led to a cautious liberalization aiming at securing markets without losing political control over the media.




Official legislation does not yet meet the liberalization process. The revised constitution of 1980 grants freedom of expression. Nevertheless, the press can be censored or suspended by presidential order due to the state of emergency law, which has been in force since 1981. Press law no. 96 of 1996 regulates the role of journalists. Journalists can be sentenced for libeling public officials or offending the president. Only corporate entities, not individuals, are allowed to obtain licenses to publish a paper.

The first newspaper was launched by the French during Napoleon’s invasion in 1798. During British colonial rule, the Egyptians’ struggle for independence served as the cradle for a strong nationalist party press. In 1960 Nasser nationalized the press. Today, the government still controls the three leading dailies, al-Ahram, al-Akhbar, and al-Gumhuriya, a number of weekly papers, and the Egyptian Middle East News Agency (MENA); 86.8 percent of journalists in the print sector work for the state-controlled media (Korff 2003).

Sadat’s reintroduction of the multiparty system in 1976 was meant to establish “straw dollies” to support government politics. However, parties were allowed to publish their own press. During Hosni Mubarak’s era, the party press developed into a vivid but always controlled mouthpiece of oppositional ideas. The most important of the 14 party newspapers are the liberal al-Wafd and the (now banned) Islamist al-Shaab (El Gody 2004). Since 2000, a number of independent dailies and weeklies, such as al-Dustur and al-Masry al-Yawm, successfully obtained licenses. Their existence is often short-lived due to financial problems or political pressure. Nevertheless, the independent press has become a strong and critical watchdog. To avoid licensing, a number of papers are registered abroad. Like all foreign press, these papers are subject to censorship.

The British Marconi Company established a radio system in 1934, and TV broadcasting started in 1960 with American help (El Gody 2004). Nasser soon used the radio as an effective propaganda tool to reach the largely illiterate masses. Voice of the Arabs became the most important radio channel in the Arab world during the 1950s and 1960s. Until 2001, national television and radio broadcasting was run solely by the state-owned Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU). Eight different radio networks have been established, including local, national, and overseas programs. Two national TV channels were complemented with six regional TV channels from 1985 to 1990. Egyptian film and TV production dominated the Arab market at that time. In 1990, Egypt became the first Arab country to launch a TV satellite channel, ESC 1. In 1993 the launch of Nile TV followed, carrying news in English and French to improve Egypt’s image in the western world.

Egypt’s great leap forward into the era of limited pluralism in the broadcasting sector started in 1998 with the launch of the national satellite NileSat 101, followed by NileSat 102 in 2000. In 2001, nine private Egyptian channels were introduced, including the successful Dream channels. These channels are characterized by rather apolitical programs due to self-censorship to obtain their licenses. Similarly, two private radio channels started broadcasting in 2003. In 1995, the Egyptian Media Production City (EMPC) was inaugurated, including film shooting areas and fully equipped studio complexes. Part of it was declared a Media Free Zone in 2000, offering tax benefits and exemptions from national censorship for foreign investments. The policy behind this deregulation is “the ruling elite’s determination to present an image of Egypt as a ‘cohesive community’ to viewers at home and abroad” (Sakr 2001, 34).

Economic development through deregulation has also been the motive for supporting new information technologies like mobile phones and the Internet. First introduced at universities in 1986, the Internet became available to the public in 1993. Since 1996 Internet service providing has been privatized. User rates have grown over 100 percent per year ever since, reaching 4 million users in 2005. Illiteracy and limited financial resources hamper wider acceptance. A Ministry for Information and Telecommunication technology was founded in 1999, and the government initiated a “one computer for each household” campaign.

Access to and content of Internet sites are officially not restricted in Egypt. Consequently, Islamist and other opposition groups, as well as a vivid weblog scene, adopted the Internet more professionally than official news media did. Nevertheless, websites of unwanted political organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood are shut down occasionally and bloggers have been imprisoned. A comprehensive Internet law is still lacking.

References:

  1. Amin, H., & Napoli, J. (2000). Media and power in Eg y pt. In J. Curran & M. Park (eds.), De-westernizing media studies. London: Routledge, pp. 178 –188.
  2. El Gody, A. (2004). Medien in Ägypten [Media in Egypt]. In Hans-Bredow-Institut (ed.), Internationales Handbuch für Hörfunk und Fernsehen 2004/2005. Baden-Baden: Nomos, pp. 721–736.
  3. Korff, Y. (2003). Missing the wave: Egyptian journalists’ contribution to democratization in the 1990s. Hamburg: Deutsches Orient-Institut.
  4. Rugh, W. A. (2004). Arab mass media: Newspapers, radio and television in Arab politics. Westport, CT: Praeger.
  5. Sakr, N. (2001). Satellite realms: Transnational television, globalization and the Middle East. London: I. B. Tauris.




Communication Research

Communication Research

  • Media
    • Media Economics
    • Media Effects
    • Media History
    • Media Production and Content
    • Media Systems
    • Media and Perceptions of Reality
    • Excitation Transfer Theory
    • Effects Of Exemplification And Exemplars
    • Economics of Advertising
    • Antitrust Regulation
    • Audience Commodity
    • Brands
    • Circulation
    • Commercialization of the Media
    • Competition in Media Systems
    • Concentration in Media Systems
    • Consolidation of Media Markets
    • Consumers in Media Markets
    • Cost and Revenue Structures in the Media
    • Cross-Media Marketing
    • Distribution
    • Diversification of Media Markets
    • Economies of Scale in Media Markets
    • Globalization of the Media
    • Labor in the Media
    • Labor Unions in the Media
    • Markets of the Media
    • Media Conglomerates
    • Media Management
    • Media Marketing
    • Mergers
    • Ownership in the Media
    • Piracy
    • Political Economy of the Media
    • Privatization of the Media
    • Forms of Media Corporations
    • Public Goods
    • Agenda-Setting Effects
    • Appraisal Theory
    • Media Effects on Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs
    • Cognitive Availability
    • Albert Bandura
    • Catharsis Theory
    • Steven H. Chaffee
    • Credibility Effects
    • Cumulative Media Effects
    • Desensitization
    • Diffusion of Information and Innovation
    • Emotional Arousal Theory
    • Media Effects on Emotions
    • Effects of Entertainment
    • Fear Induction through Media Content
    • Leon Festinger
    • Framing Effects
    • Frustration Aggression Theory
    • George Gerbner
    • Carl I. Hovland
    • Intercultural Media Effects
    • Elihu Katz
    • Knowledge Gap Effects
    • Latitude of Acceptance
    • Linear and Nonlinear Models of Causal Analysis
    • Mainstreaming
    • Media Effects: Direct and Indirect Effects
    • Media Effects Duration
    • History of Media Effects
    • Media Effects Models: Elaborated Models
    • Strength of Media Effects
    • Media System Dependency Theory
    • Mediating Factors
    • Mediatization of Society
    • Structure of Message Effect
    • Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann
    • Effects of Nonverbal Signals
    • Observational Learning
    • Opinion Leader
    • Order of Presentation
    • Persuasion
    • Physical Effects of Media Content
    • Priming Theory
    • Media Effects on Public Opinion
    • Reciprocal Effects
    • Schemas and Media Effects
    • Effects of Sex and Pornography as Media Content
    • Sleeper Effect
    • Media Effects on Social Behavior
    • Media Effects on Social Capital
    • Social Judgment Theory
    • Trap Effect
    • Two-Step Flow of Communication
    • Secondary Victimization
    • Effects of Violence as Media Content
    • Academy Awards
    • History of Advertising
    • BBC
    • Cable Television
    • History of Censorship
    • History of Cinematography
    • History of Citizen Journalism
    • Civil Rights Movement and the Media
    • Coffee Houses as Public Sphere
    • Effects of Violence as Media Content
    • Academy Awards
    • Collective Memory and the Media
    • History of Digital Media
    • History of Documentary Film
    • History of Elections and Media
    • Electronic Mail
    • Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
    • Fleet Street
    • Fourth Estate
    • Graffiti
    • Historic Key Events and the Media
    • Illustrated Newspapers
    • Literary Journalism
    • History of Magazine
    • Music Videos
    • Nineteenth-Century New Journalism
    • History of News Agencies
    • History of News Magazine
    • Newscast
    • 24-Hour Newscast
    • Antecedents of Newspaper
    • History of Newspaper
    • Paperback Fiction
    • Penny Press
    • History of Postal Service
    • History of Printing
    • Newsreel
    • Freedom of Communication
    • Propaganda in World War II
    • History of Public Broadcasting
    • Radical Media
    • Radio Networks
    • Radio: Social History
    • Radio Technology
    • Satellite Television
    • History of Sports and the Media
    • History of Telegraph
    • Television Networks
    • Television: Social History
    • Television Technology
    • Underground Press
    • History of Violence and the Media
    • Virtual Reality
    • Watergate Scandal
    • Women’s Movement and the Media
    • Accountability of the Media
    • Accountability of the News
    • Accuracy
    • Balance
    • Bias in the News
    • Commentary
    • Commercialization: Impact on Media Content
    • Conflict as Media Content
    • Consonance of Media Content
    • Construction of Reality through the News
    • Credibility of Content
    • Crime Reporting
    • Editorial
    • Endorsement
    • Ethics of Media Content
    • Fairness Doctrine
    • Fictional Media Content
    • Framing of the News
    • Infotainment
    • Instrumental Actualization
    • Internet
    • Internet News
    • Local News
    • Magazine
    • Media Performance
    • Morality and Taste in Media Content
    • Narrative News Story
    • Negativity
    • Neutrality
    • News
    • News Factors
    • News Production and Technology
    • News Values
    • Newspaper
    • Objectivity in Reporting
    • Plurality
    • Quality of the News
    • Quality Press
    • Radio
    • Radio News
    • Reality and Media Reality
    • Scandalization in the News
    • Sensationalism
    • Separation of News and Comments
    • Soap Operas
    • Soft News
    • Sound Bites
    • Stereotypes
    • Synchronization of the News
    • Tabloid Press
    • Tabloidization
    • Television
    • News
    • Truth and Media Content
    • Violence as Media Content
    • Africa: Media Systems
    • Austria: Media System
    • Balkan States: Media Systems
    • Baltic States: Media Systems
    • Argentina: Media System
    • Bolivia: Media System
    • Brazil: Media System
    • Canada: Media System
    • Caribbean States: Media Systems
    • Central America: Media Systems
    • Chile: Media System
    • China: Media System
    • Colombia: Media System
    • Convergence of Media Systems
    • Cuba: Media System
    • Czech Republic: Media System
    • Egypt: Media System
    • France: Media System
    • Germany: Media System
    • Gulf States: Media Systems
    • India: Media System
    • Iran: Media System
    • Israel: Media System
    • Italy: Media System
    • Japan: Media System
    • Malaysia: Media System
    • Mexico: Media System
    • Netherlands: Media System
    • North Africa: Media Systems
    • Poland: Media System
    • Portugal: Media System
    • Public Broadcasting Systems
    • Russia: Media System
    • Scandinavian States: Media Systems
    • Singapore: Media System
    • South Africa: Media System
    • South Korea: Media System
    • Spain: Media System
    • Switzerland: Media System
    • United Kingdom: Media System
    • United States of America: Media System
    • West Asia: Media Systems
    • Behavioral Norms: Perception through the Media
    • Body Images in the Media
    • Computer Games and Reality Perception
    • Cultivation Effects
    • Disowning Projection
    • Entertainment Content and Reality Perception
    • Extra-Media Data
    • False Consensus
    • False Uniqueness
    • Media Campaigns And Perceptions Of Reality
    • Media Content and Social Networks
    • Media Messages and Family Communication
    • Media and Perceptions of Reality
    • Perceived Realism as a Decision Process
    • Perceived Reality as a Communication Process
    • Perceived Reality: Meta-Analyses
    • Perceived Reality as a Social Process
    • Pluralistic Ignorance
    • Pluralistic Ignorance and Ideological Biases
    • Social Perception
    • Social Perception: Impersonal Impact
    • Social Perception: Unrealistic Optimism
    • Socialization by the Media
    • Spiral of Silence
    • Stereotyping and the Media
    • Third-Person Effects
    • Video Malaise

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