Egypt's media wars intensify
Coverage of the recent anti-government street protests in Egypt suggest little has changed on the media scene since the January 25, 2011 Revolution.
Egypt is deeply polarized, and nowhere are the divisions more evident than they are in the country's politicized and biased media.
Rather than accurately reporting on the country's issues to help the public better understand the complexities of the current political situation, Egypt's media itself reflects the ongoing political and ideological conflict, and has at times fueled the conflict, fanning the flames of intolerance and inciting violence against "the other" — those opposing President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, or who are even remotely critical of the regime.
On April 26, the day after protests were held to denounce the handing of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, the headlines of the main state-sponsored and pro-government, privately owned newspapers on the one hand, and those of independent papers on the other, vastly contradicted each other, offering opposing narratives. It was as if the journalists and editors from the two camps were reporting from entirely different realities.
While a few newspapers, such as the privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm and El-Shorouk, did try to maintain balance and a degree of professionalism and objectivity in their reporting, highlighting the grim reality of the heavy-handed crackdown on opposition activists by security forces, most media outlets were in lockstep with the authorities and chose to downplay the anti-government protests, describing them as "small" and "insignificant."
