Freedom of the Press in Egypt
“Egyptian law gives Egypt’s ministry of information the right to ban or censor any publication. The censor reviews each edition of the Middle East Times before allowing them to be distributed.
Articles may be censored if they:
Report on human rights abuses
Criticize the president or his family
Criticize the military
Refer to any ill-treatment of Egyptians in “friendly” Arab countries,
particularly Saudi Arabia.
Discuss modern, unorthodox interpretations of Islam.
Report on discrimination against Coptic Christians in Egypt.
However, the censor is very arbitrary — sometimes these things go through, sometimes they don’t.” The Middle East Times discusses this and more on their website in the last (and partially hidden) link in their menu.
(One article I published in Egypt discussing the selective application of the theory of civilian immunity by both the Israelis and the Palestinians was censored. The objectionable line that was deleted was “In the last fifty years, the United States has codifeid and implement functional equality among white men, women, minorities, children, immigrants,the aged, homeless, homosexual, religious, unions, prisoners, and police.”)
