Ten months in a tiny prison cell with padded walls and flickering lights have done little to alter 26 year-old Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil’s views on the military government running Egypt in the transitional phase. Instead, his confinement appears to have only strengthened his resolve to continue the fight against what he describes as a “corrupt regime” that he hopes, will soon be toppled.
Maikel was released on the 24th of January after the military rulers announced they would pardon 1959 political detainees (who had faced military tribunals) ahead of the first anniversary of the 25 January Revolution. The move was seen by skeptics as an attempt to appease a public that has grown increasingly weary of heavy handed military rule. Maikel had been charged with allegedly “spreading rumours about the army and insulting the military establishment” but insists these were “trumped up charges” to punish him for publicly criticising the military in his blog posts.
Leading a protest through the streets of downtown Cairo on Saturday, Maikel chanted anti-military slogans and beckoned to fellow Egyptians on the street to join the rally. “Are you not Egyptian?” he cried. “Have your rights not been violated?” Scores of young activists — many of whom had themselves been subjected to torture and abuse at the hands of security forces — chanted after him. Their cries of “Down with military rule!” and “Yes, we dare to chant against the military” were met with nods of approval from pedestrians and commuters, some of whom signaled a thumbs up in agreement.
Earlier in a press conference at the Journalists’ Syndicate, Maikel shocked journalists with a graphic account of his jail experience. He recalled having endured verbal abuse and mockery by prison guards and interrogators, being forced to watch fellow convicts being tortured and having had chemicals sprayed up his nose and drugs infused in his meals in attempts to manipulate his thinking. Maikel was then transferred to El- Abbasiya Mental Health Hospital for checks on his sanity. Doctors had resisted pressure from authorities to declare him psychologically unstable for refusing to stand trial, he said.
Samira Ibrahim, a protester who had been detained and subjected to a forced virginity test on the 9 March for camping out in Tahrir Square joined Maikel’s march from the Journalists’ Syndicate to Tahrir Square. She challenged the military council, filing a lawsuit against military rulers for humiliating checks performed on 17 female protesters by a male doctor in the Cairo Museum grounds. She lamented that despite a ruling by a Cairo Adminstrative Court in December declaring an end to the practice, “attempts are underway to change the charge from rape to indecent assault.”
Meanwhile, thousands of Egyptians took to the streets Saturday to commemorate the “Friday of Rage” — the worst day of violence in last year’s mass uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. The biggest rally was held on Kasr El Nil Bridge, scene of last year’s bloody clashes between security forces and pro-democracy activists.The protesters demanded justice for the victims and their families, vowing to continue the revolution until their demands are met.
Joining the Kasr el Nil protest, Maikel warned the revolutionaries that their struggle against the military dictatorship must continue “lest the revolution be aborted and they all end up behind bars.” He and the other activists pledged they will not rest until the military returns to the barracks, handing over power to a civilian government.
My name is Ihsaan Azab. I’m 20 years old, and I was born in America. I lived half my life there and the other half in Egypt. I grew up in free country and knew how it felt to express myself. I moved to Egypt 10 years ago, but I still didn’t realise the burdens of daily life for Egyptian people lived in until 25 January last year.
Participating in protests on 25 Jan last year was an indescribable feeling. I was out with millions of people chanting the same demands. We insisted on our demands and achieved our goal — bringing down Mubarak’s oppressive government.
A year has now passed, and on 25 January this year, the same people who protested last year were out to say that they still have demands and will continue with the revolution. Others were there to celebrate its first anniversary. I was there again because I believe we still have more goals to be achieved, and as I chanted with the crowd, “down with the Military Council!” I was proud, more than ever, of being Egyptian.
Egyptian state TV— for decades the mouthpiece of the authoritarian regime — is an ugly towering block of concrete and steel overlooking the River Nile at Maspero in downtown Cairo. In the post-revolutionary era, it is a heavily fortified fortress surrounded by barbed wire and stone barricades. Snipers can be spotted on the rooftop and terraces, and uniformed soldiers with machine guns stand guard outside the main entrances and exits. Corrugated iron gates have replaced the once-glass façade adding gloom to an already tense and inhospitable atmosphere inside the building which houses some 45,000 employees.
Upstairs on the fifth floor, a storm is brewing. Outside the main news studio, scores of employees of the main Arabic Nile News Channel are staging a sit-in, which they vow will continue until their demands are met. The demands include an immediate end to censorship and a set of reforms, which they say, are long overdue.
“Etman! Lift your hands off the media!” chant the angry protesters. Their message is addressed to Ismail Etman, the senior military general who currently heads the Armed Forces Morale Affairs Department.
‘‘We are also telling the station managers to keep their hands off. We are tired of censorship and interference in our editorial work,” complains Aly El Attar, a director at the channel.
The protest was triggered by the banning of a documentary on the 25 January revolution, produced by fellow director Aly El Geheny. Titled Tahrir Square, the documentary includes footage of the brutal treatment of peaceful protesters by security forces against during the mass uprising early last year. The decision by the Head of the News Sector not to broadcast the film enraged staff at the channel prompting them to take action. They vowed to show the film “with or without his consent.”
“We had a revolution a year ago but nothing has changed,” laments newscaster Iman Mansour. “We still work in a stifling and restrictive atmosphere. We are still waiting for the restructuring of editorial policies and the purging of state TV. ”
She insists that the red lines remain in place: the ruling military council having now replaced Hosni Mubarak as the new line that cannot be crossed.
“If a guest starts criticising the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), the atmosphere in the studio becomes tense and I’m instructed by the show producers to cut the program short,” Mansour says.
“On the other hand, if the guest is pro-SCAF, he or she is allowed to ramble on for as long as they like.”
But this maybe about to change.
Mansour affirms that in the past many of her co-workers practiced self- censorship because they were afraid of losing their jobs or worse still, of facing an investigation by a military court. These fears have been reinforced by recent media reports of fellow journalists and bloggers being summoned for interrogation by the Military Prosecutor — a trend, which according to the protesting journalists has become “all too common” in the post-revolutionary era.
Mahmoud El Azaly, a news editor at the channel complains that the station management had recently handed them an updated list of the guests they were permitted to host on their live shows. “This is unacceptable. In a free media, all voices are heard. No one is excluded,” he argues affirming that the channel has also extended its boycott of outspoken critics of the military rulers such as former Presidential-hopeful Mohamed El Baradei and author Alaa El Aswany.
Just days before Egypt’s Second Revolution, a protest planned by activists demanding an end to military rule, the Nile News journalists say they are adamant about covering events as they unfold. “Last year, we were confined to our studios and were not authorised to report from Tahrir. Now we are being told to cover the pro-military rally in Abbassiya instead. But we are not going to repeat the mistakes of the past. Our cameras will be in Tahrir too. We share the aspirations of the pro democracy activists,” El Attar asserts.
While a number of talk show hosts working for independent channels have taken a stand in recent months threatening to quit if their shows were censored, state television’s critics allege it is still biased in favour of the authorities. The journalists’ chants of “Down with military rule!” and “Thowar! Ahrar! We are free revolutionaries and we shall continue our revolution!” outside the Maspero office of the new Minister of Information mark a turning point and perhaps, a break from a repressive past.
