Since Egyptians began crowding into Cairo's Tahrir Square ten days ago, the world has been able to witness historic events as they unfold, but that window into a country in transformation, is being shattered. Journalists covering the uprising in Egypt are under assault. In the last 24 hours, journalists have been attacked in the streets, seen their information confiscated and equipment smashed. Security forces have removed virtually all cameras overlooking Tahrir square, detained reporters, and raided newsrooms.
This violent wave of censorship began with the demonstration and has since evolved into a systematic effort by the Egyptian government to suppress news and information coming out of Egypt. What is frightening about the massive crackdown in Egypt today is that sweeping efforts to suppress the media often lay the groundwork for most brutal kinds of repression, from the Tiananmen Square massacre to the 2009 post-election crackdown in Iran. As brutal as the violence has been in Egypt over the last several days, there is also no question that the presence of the international media has acted as something of a restraint. In other words, things could get worse.
Already, some of the live feeds from Tahrir Square have been lost and the ability of international journalists to report in the streets of Cairo and other cities throughout Egypt has been greatly curtailed. While individual citizens may be able to partially fill the gap, the information they tend to provide is fragmented, limited, and reaches a relatively modest audience. The weaving of individual stories into a tapestry that portrays the complexity of the real world is the work of journalists.
Moreover, the flow of electronic updates by citizens is not reliable. The Egyptian government has demonstrated a willingness to essentially pull the plug on the Internet. While Internet service has been restored for the moment, the combination of systematic physical attacks on reporters and an Internet clampdown could plunge Egypt into a complete information blackout.
With no witnesses, those undertaking the violence in Egypt will have a free hand to carry out their brutal campaign without restraint. Standing up for the rights of journalists at this crucial moment may be our last, best hope of stemming an impending bloodbath that could go down in history as the gravest example of political repression. This is the moment for world to speak with one voice, and to insist that President Mubarak and his government end this unprecedented assault on the media.
Joel Simon is executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
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After all we support dictators all over the world and the democracy here is skin deep and below the skin surface, there is an ugly face of oppression.
Maybe in this run-amok information age, there comes a point at which the whole apparatus has just gone overboard and starts to maybe represent a public menace of sorts. Sure, when the camera's pointed the other way, you can't see the iron boot heel descending on the citizens, but honestly, since when did anyone REALLY give a darn about the Egyptians anyway? The only reason anyone's talking about Egypt right now is because of all the ruckus.
Maybe what Mubarak did was actually pretty shrewd. The internet is how billions of dollars get siphoned out of the United States on a daily basis, nevermind people's intellectual property, and you can't say 'surveillance state' without the web. It still isn't known, how much economic impact the chinese hackers had.
I hope everything ends well for the Egyptians. I think you've got a lot of hard-working people there, people with good intentions, but you also have a lot of poverty, and people that have been poor for a long time, even for all their lives, frankly, they get desperate. So, if people really care about Egypt, then maybe it's time to try and help them in ways that'll be meaningful, not just tut-tutting about people rioting in King Tut's shadow. Less with the missiles and rockets and bombs, and more with the help with basic infrastructure, like, water. Egypt's a desert country. Can't do much, without water. Maybe more people will ask just how our foreign aid monies get spent, to make sure it's really for a good cause.
People are harping about what's going to happen to Mubarak, well, what about the fate of the Egyptian everyman/woman? Even if Mubarak gets deposed, what's that do for them? Unless NASA can build a giant space umbrella to take the edge off the sun or something, it's going to keep cooking them alive...
The question about the purposes of our foreign aid is also a good one: It is largely military aid. We see the tanks in the square and the gas grenades used on the crowds are marked "made in the USA." Apparently, the administration is trying to get a handle on a new government in Egypt lest we get another "Islamic Republic" like Iran or an independent party like Hamas in Gaza. Mubarak was his own man and Egypt's man; whatever happens now will be more of the same but, perhaps, even more so.
That said, I am in favor of more transparency. Most secrets are not much secret, often known to those who care to know, kept "secret" because they are embarrassing rather than critical, sort of like the naked emperor. In our representative democracy as in any valid system, those with the power and responsibility (all of us) should operate from some knowledge and the subsequent better judgment.
If the so called liberal countries try and muzzle journalists, what do you expect of tyrants?
Carlogen46, of course, is by and large wrong as anybody believing the official news can tell us. After all, our officialdom has all the resources of the CIA, military intelligence, and interested native experts to inform them -- much more than anybody depending on their eyes and ears can discover.
I share this concern. I hope nobody is foolish enough to believe such a thing can be done in 2011 without immediate and severe consequences. I don't think such a thing will be done.
So far, the organized violence has been kept below a certain level, and the outstanding incidents have been due to the negligence or the brutal nature of certain individuals.
Tomorrow I hope the military will do its duty to prevent a massive march on the presidential palace. Keeping demonstrators at a distance will keep pressure at a minimum.
This would not be out of line for the military to do, so long as preparations are made well in advance to keep people out, a bad situation can be avoided.
The goal tomorrow should be keeping order and preventing chaos with humanitarian concern for all demonstrators regardless of opposition or loyalty to the current government. Keeping demonstrators at a safe distance from the presidential palace is the best choice for the most people. Egypt has no hereditary ruler and there is no legitimate excuse for a siege of the President's palace, other than political ambition.