July 06 Newsletter

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Egypt’s New Press Law is Not Good Enough
Mohamed Abdel Aziz

Egypt is one of only a few countries in the world that imprisons journalists for publishing offenses. In February of 2004, President Mubarak promised to remedy this situation by decriminalizing press offenses, a step that would entail amending the 1996 Press Law. But over two years later, when the government-controlled People’s Assembly finally introduced draft legislation purporting to implement this promise, protest erupted from Egyptian journalists, democracy advocates, and international organization concerned with freedom of the press. The Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate, led by pro-reform president Galal Araf, labeled the bill the “protection of corruption” bill. On July 9th, 25 independent and opposition Egyptian newspapers went on strike for one day in protest, while several hundred journalists and their supports demonstrated outside the Parliament building.

The draft bill as prepared by the government was submitted to Parliament the next day despite the protests. It disallowed the penalty of imprisonment in only two specific offenses: that of defamation (al-Qadf) and in cases of insults (al-Sabb). But by a slight of hand it actually left them on the books by renaming the said offenses “impeachment of financial integrity” (al-Ta’n fi Dimmat al-Afrad). But at the last minute before the vote, Mubarak called the Minister of Legal Affairs and asked him to instruct the NDP members (who represent 80% of the Parliament) to strike this last provision, which would have carried a sentence of three years in prison. Instead, Mubarak suggested increasing fines for libel.

As noted by the Journalists’ Syndicate and by Human Rights Watch, the government, despite the improvements in the new law, retains a number of tools for punishing journalists for what they write. A number of articles in the Penal Code, couched in broad language that lends itself to nearly any interpreation one chooses, remain problematic:

Article 102, under which al-Dustour Editor Ibrahim Eissa was recently sentenced, allows for the detention of “whoever deliberately diffuses news, information/data, or false or tendentious rumors, or propagates exciting publicity, if this is liable to disturb public security, spread horror among the people, or cause harm or damage to the public interest.”

Article 179, a vestige of a law from Egypt’s monarchial period originally titled “Offence to the Person of the Monarch,” has been reworded to read “whoever insults the president of the republic.” Repackaged under Nasser, but largely dormant until recently, it has been used against demonstrators who “insult” President Mubarak.

Article 181 penalizes anyone who “vilifies ... the king or president of a foreign country.” Prior to the recent amendments, no mandatory sentence was specified; now the penalty will be between six months to five years in prison, or a fine of 5-20 thousand Egyptian pounds for the editor and 10-30 thousand pounds for the journalist. With an Egyptian GDP per capita of about 6,000 pounds, this is a relatively harsh fine. In addition, foreign embassies can now apply to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for assistance in bringing charges against Egyptian journalists. The Journalists’ Syndicate had called for a maximum fine of 10 thousand pounds and the complete abolishment of imprisonment.

Article 184 calls for the imprisonment of those who insult Parliament, public agencies and institutions, the Armed Forces, and the Judiciary.

A new Article, 308, now replaces the old Article 185, which had called for the imprisonment of those who insult public servants or representatives. Article 308 requires a minimum imprisonment of six months for journalists whose writings “comprise an attack against the dignity and honor of individuals, or a constitute an outrageous smear on the reputation of families.”

Human Rights Watch noted that “These vague and broadly worded provisions in Egypt’s Press Law invite abuse and contravene international standards of freedom of expression.”

The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights issued a report on July 12th praising Mubarak’s intervention but characterizing it as insufficient, agreeing that many other articles in the Penal Code “need to be reviewed.” They called for the formation of a “committee consisting of legal and legislative experts to review all of the legislations concerned with the freedom of Journalism, especially the articles that punish journalists with imprisonment in all laws related to expression, publishing, and printing.”