Egyptians fear return of surveillance state
The release of recordings of telephone conversations among Egyptian activists has sparked a new debate over media freedom and privacy.
The recordings released by Egyptian journalist Abdel Rahim Ali about some activists and politicians — including activist Asmaa Mahfouz, the founder of the April 6 Youth Movement Ahmed Maher, Abdul Rahman Yusuf and former parliamentarian Mostafa al-Naggar — triggered a great debate in Egypt, and renewed concerns that the Mubarak police state, which used to eavesdrop on politicians and its opponents, is back.
In response to what Ali did, Naggar and Yusuf filed a lawsuit on Jan. 12 before the administrative court of the state council to cancel the TV show "Black Box," which Ali presents, and to close the TV channel Al-Qahira wal Nas.
According to the lawsuit, the program broke the media honor code and published personal secrets without prior permission from the attorney-general. Attorney-General Hisham Barakat opened an urgent inquiry about the broadcast of the recordings. He also ordered an investigation of the mobile phone company Vodafone-Egypt because the phone numbers carried by these activists were issued by this company.
The April 6 Movement began a campaign against mobile phone companies because they cooperated with the security agencies. In the past, those companies cut off communications during the Friday of Rage on Jan. 28, 2011. The mobile phone companies have denied the charges, saying that they only provide services to their customers and spy on no one.
