12:58AM
Feeling naughty?
By 
Issandr El Amrani | Egypt Media
Issandr El Amrani | Egypt Media
Then read something the government doesn't want you to. Like this week's Cairo magazine, which the censors at the Ministry of Information have decided is just not appropriate for Egyptian readers. The magazine may yet come out in a few days -- we hope the good folks at the censorship office will come to their senses -- but in the meantime the whole issue is online, as usual. Maybe they didn't like this article on the referendum?
Or could it be the cover below?
Surely not.
Or could it be the cover below?
Surely not.
Reader Comments (11)
Very nice article...
lets hope cairo can take the financial troubles that come with censorship.
Very sorry for the incident . If you have sometime , I hope you can give us some details about how this censorship thing works in Egypt . I understand from what you wrote that you do not know exactly why they censored the issue . Do they discuss with the editor(s) the points or aticles they are objecting ? What exactly are their philosophy in censoring a printed issue when they know that these same articles can be read online ? Do they treat magazines and newspapers written in a foreign language like English or French differently from papers and magazines written in Arabic ? From my readings of opposition and independent ewspapers written in Arabic , my impression is that there is no censorship , even on a limited scale . Is not news of censoring Cairo magazine harmful for the regime abroad ? Are people in censorship working indepently on based on their own assessment of what being written or are they working under orders from the Ministry of Culture or information or Interior or whatever administrative institution they belong to ?
Sorry for the questions but I find this censorship thing irritating to me particularly that I had a bad experience with censoring certain books and certain pages in some books I sent to Cairo when I was abroad , but this was a long time ago .
Why did you expect that Cairo Magazine would be permitted to speak poorly of the NDP?
The domestic opposition and independent have been publishing pictures and stories about the abuse.
But those are in Arabic. Who reads that these days?
Certainly not the up and coming NDP political classes or its policies committee. No these people prefer English and like to speak with American accents.
The types do not care what Egyptians read about them in Arabic. They care about what they read about themselves in English.
DOWN WITH CENSORSHIP!
If members of the policies committee of NDP prefer to read and speak English rather than Arabic , then they must know that everything they do and every move they take is closely monitored abroad . Censoring a magazine written in English will not be of any help for their image . Are all members of this committee stupid to this extent? Cann't they use some reason ?
I was under the impression that they didn't censor English or foreign language publications as much as Arabic papers because they figured English-speakers were a small, mostly foreign group, and they needed to maintain an image of openness for expats. I mean, the Arabic Ahram is always fawningly pro-regime while Ahram Weekly has the occasional critical article, e.g. this week they reported on the referendum violence. Also, anything can be accessed on the internet, assuming of course that one can afford a computer. My overall impression is that they allow the rich more freedom of expression while censoring more mass-oriented papers. Is the Cairo magazine hold-back a new trend?
I asked Saad Eddin Ibrahim about your [Issandr's] comment on May 22 that Ibrahim was/ is pro-war because that didn't seem right to me [he had told me the opposite]. He was adamant that he never supported the war. He believes, however, that now that the war has occured, all parties must actively work to end the occupation as soon as possible, give complete power to the Iraqis, and help promote democracy in the region. His reponse: "You are mistaken about my position towards the war. My condemnation of Saddam Hussein does not mean I was pro-war. I was only against despotism and imperialism." He asked that you refer to the following two articles, which he wrote soon after the war:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A43269-2003May11¬Found=true
http://www.eicds.org/english/publications/saadarticles/2003/dissident.htm
Is Cairo one of those mags that are "based" out of country. If this is the case, yep they are subject to censorship...to the best of my knowledge, those published in the country are not subject outright to censorship...maybe self censorship, and other tricks related to priniting (they all use gov printing shops) and distrubtion..it is funny-and pretty disgusting too-how this censorship works....and on Saad, i actually thought he was pro intervention..maybe he did not use the term i am pro-war, but being pro-intervention, and the intervention was war/invasion of whatever, then i think we would be hung up on technicalities focusing on what the exact word he used..there are a group of Egyptian "neo-cons" in the making
correct it is not possible to censor a publication that is licensed inside the country (which is why political parties are still important since they get to have a newspaper).
the only thing they can do is lift the paper after it was distributed, trouble at printing time is very rare, the self censorship is more of a fear from reaction against the individual journalist, or the party (ala sha3b).
but any imported papers or magazine are censored.
now since it is practically impossible to get a license many publications register in cypress or similar countries and print in one of the freetrade zones, the publication is then "imported" into Egypt and recieves censorship
not true that english language papers don't get censorship, Cairo times was heavily censored and this might be one of the reasons behind its demise, in the end when the government couldn't take it anymore instead of repeatedly censoring al destour and cairo times they simply shut down the print shop that operated in the free zone.
IMO this short period is what set the tone of opposition papers today, before that they where all selfcensoring themselves to dullness, then al shaab began campaigining against certain ministers, was suspended and now you got the current incarnation of al destour, al arabi and al ghad and occasionally al wafd doing directly attacking the regime.
lets see how cairo will fare.
Dear Alaa:
I'm going to have to correct you: Cairo Times (where I worked for two and a half years) did not close because of censorship, but because of financial troubles and the fact that its owner, Hisham Kassem, had shifted his priorities to working on Al Masri Al Youm, where he works as deputy chairman of the board (naib al reiss al idara.) Also, as far as I know the shutting down of the printing press in Nasr City Free Zone (which I don't remember, and in any case there are several) is not what caused both Al Destour and Cairo Times to stop printing, since the CT ran from 1997-2004 printing mostly from there, apart from a short time at the beginning when it was printed in Cyprus. I don't know about Al Destour.
I am posting a longer post on how the press works to answer some of the questions above. Stay tuned.
which is why I said might be one of the reasons, its not uncommon to hear people claim the constant consership caused the financial hardship, I have no way of knowing tab3an and I have more trust in your account than random rumors.
the printing press was shutdown for a period of time, I remember this very clearly because all cyprus publications (including things like teen stuff) stopped back then, I'll try to see if I can find references but I'm sure of this one.
I did not make it clear that it was a temporary thing though, my bad.
I can't remember exactly how the destour thing happened, I remember it disappeared for a long time, then came back but with issa using silly aliases (rumor has it the president himself said issa will not publish in Egypt again), if my memory serves me right that was also the time when they reshuffled the staff of roza al youssef (good riddance, they created the satanics fiasco).
anyway good piece you wrote about publishing.