Demoted Egyptian editor bemoans lack of press freedom

Journalist Abdelnasser Salama had high hopes for press freedom when Egyptians took to the streets and ended the 30-year rule of president Hosni Mubarak.

Three years later, he has scaled the peak of his profession, with promotion to editor-in-chief of Egypt's best known paper state-run Al-Ahram, and fallen sharply back down to earth by being relegated to the rank of reporter.

He says the demotion was partly a punishment for running hard-hitting stories criticizing authorities; a source at a government-appointed press council said he was poor at dealing with staff and there were complaints of bias.

Salama's rise and fall sheds light on the relationship between the state and the press in a country that has lurched from Mubarak's authoritarian rule to a turbulent Islamist administration and then back again to a government backed by the army.

"After January 25 we had hoped there would be change in everything, not just the press," Salama told Reuters, referring to the 2011 uprising against Mubarak, whose anniversary falls on Saturday.

"We had hoped for social justice. It hasn't been realized yet. Press freedom hasn't been realized yet until now."

Through three decades of state-controlled journalism under Mubarak, reporters and editors grew used to the fact that the government would dictate what appeared in the media.

According to Salama, that pressure to toe the government line remained constant under both the leaders who succeeded Mubarak: Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, elected in June 2012, and the interim government backed by army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who toppled Mursi last July after mass protests.

Salama's successor who started as editor-in-chief this month had also preceded him in 2012 under the rule of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. One of his first actions back in office was to write an editorial saying Al-Ahram was "on the doorstep of a new patriotic period" and won't enter any "unnecessary useless controversy."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/21/us-egypt-press-idUSBREA0K0KO20140121

Demoted Egyptian editor bemoans lack of press freedom

Demoted Egyptian editor bemoans lack of press freedom

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