We were gathered around the dinner table at the residence of the British Ambassador in Cairo Sir Derek Plumbly. The occasion was the visit Kim Howells to Cairo.
As Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Howells’ responsibilities range from the Middle East, to counter-terrorism, from North and South America to drugs and international crime, from Afghanistan to UK visas and migration policy.
Despite that, our conversation centered mainly around the press, which the British and the Egyptians alike agreed was at its worst in both countries.
We said that the margin of freedom in the Egyptian press has reached unprecedented heights. I even expressed to the British minister how proud we were that the press freedom in our country today has even surpassed the limits of freedom of expression found in democratic countries, to reach the freedom to slander, defame and invent false news – something I don’t see in his country’s press.
One of the British expats made an intelligent comment about how he noticed a huge gap between press activity and political activity. He noted how strange it was that, despite some breaches, the freedom which we all agreed the Egyptian press enjoys, is not even remotely reflected in the political arena, where freedom is relatively limited.
I said: “It’s understandable, even natural, which shocked the Englishman, so I explained: “Does Hyde Park corner reflect political life in Britain? Any nitwit in London can go to Hyde Park, take his stand on a soapbox, slander the Queen, curse the government or even attack God without having the slightest influence on political life. People walk out of the park and their life goes on as usual, as if they hadn’t heard anything at all.
“The role of the Egyptian press nowadays isn’t the same as what you have in Britain, I said, “it’s more like what goes on in Hyde Park, so we shouldn’t take press freedom here too seriously.
The motives behind many of those writing in the Egyptian press aren’t too different from those of the nitwits who take the soapbox in Hyde Park. They express their frustrations, sufferings and grudges and so opinion is often mixed with news, fact with fabrication and news reports with advertising; which has nothing to do with press freedom.
To this a leading representative of an opposition party responded, “Frustrations, sufferings and grudges are the government’s own making. Remedying them will reform the press.
The British minister said: “This only goes to show that your press isn’t that different from ours, surprising us all by confessing that he no longer reads newspapers and that he follows the news on television, which is more immediate and credible than the press, where stories are colored by the direction of the paper.
At that a high-ranking official from the ruling National Democratic Party confessed that he too does not care much for the press. He recounted how the press has reached such a level of falsehood to the extent that one day, sitting at home with his wife and children, he read a huge headline about how he had divorced his wife and married a well-known actress.
“Is this reasonable? Is this press freedom? he asked, to which I responded, “The mistake is, to a large extent, that of the government because the state owns the lion’s share of the press that matters.
The British minister then said: “It seems to me the saying that each society gets the ruler it deserves may not be entirely true after all. Some nations get rulers who deserve better people, but the sure truth is that, in my opinion, every society gets the press it deserves!
Mohamed Salmawyis President of the Writer’s Union of Egypt and editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo. This article is syndicated in the Arabic press.
