Egypt: Permits, penalties and paranoia | MadaMasr
▻https://www.madamasr.com/en/2018/07/26/feature/politics/permits-penalties-and-paranoia
Diaa Rashwan, head of the State Information Service (SIS), the government body tasked with overseeing foreign media in Egypt, is outspoken about his belief that the Egyptian state is in open conflict with the international press.
“We are facing the fiercest foreign media smear campaign that Egypt has encountered throughout its modern history,” Rashwan said in a television interview on the privately owned Al-Haya television station in February. He went on to detail the steps the SIS is taking in response, including issuing written reports denouncing “offensive” coverage and summoning journalists for closed-door discussions.
Over the last few years, and particularly since Rashwan was appointed SIS head in June 2017, working conditions for foreign reporters in Egypt have gone from being difficult to a grueling daily battle with authorities, as international journalists are forced to endure an increasingly suffocating bureaucracy, public shaming, backroom intimidation and the looming threat of deportation.
The SIS is an oversight body established in 1954 that defines its role as “the nation’s main informational, awareness and public relations agency” and closely monitors foreign media activities in Egypt. Although initially formed under the now disbanded Information Ministry, it has been operating under the office of the presidency since 2012.
Rashwan’s tightened grip on the foreign press comes in the context of a wider state crackdown on all media, which dramatically intensified following the military-backed ouster of President Mohamed Morsi in 2013 as part of a campaign to silence any and all opposition voices. Authorities have since taken unprecedented measures against press freedoms in an effort to control the narrative about Egypt, both at home and abroad.