The Coverage of Egypt’s Revolution in the Egyptian, American and Israeli Newspapers By Hend Selim Michaelmas and Hilary Terms 2011/2012 Sponsor: Mona Megalli 1 Acknowledgements It is a great honour to dedicate this research to all of the martyrs who sacrified their life for freedom, justice and dignity in Egypt and the Arab World. I am very grateful to God for his many blessings in helping me through this project. I would like to thank especially my sponsor, Mona Megalli, for giving me this great opportunity to spend two terms in Oxford. I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, James Painter, for his help and patience. I would like to thank all of the Reuters Institute staff: David Levy, John Lloyd, Robert G Picard, Alex Reid, Sara Kalim, Kate Hanneford-Smith and Rebecca Edwards. I would like to thank everyone at the Egyptian, American and Israeli newspapers who assisted me. I would like to thank my colleague Sahar Ramadan for sending me Al-Wafd newspaper editions. Many thanks to my American friends Professor Margaret Richards and Ms. Pat Masten. I am very grateful to my parents for their love and support. 2 Table of Contents Chapter 1: The situation in Egypt before the revolution Egypt’s relationship with the United States and Israel The Research questions Chapter2: The Theoretical Framework Chapter3: The status of the Egyptian newspapers Chapter 4: The characteristics of the coverage of the revolution in three Egyptian newspapers Chapter 5: The factors influencing the coverage of the revolution in the three Egyptian newspapers Chapter6: The status of the American newspapers The characteristics of the coverage of the revolution in two American newspapers The factors that influenced the coverage of the revolution in the two American newspapers 3 Chapter 7: The status of the Israeli newspapers The characteristics of the coverage of the revolution in two Israeli newspapers The factors that influenced the coverage of the revolution in the two Israeli newspapers Chapter 8: Conclusions 4 Chapter 1 The Roots of the Revolution The precursors to the Egyptian revolution started on 17 th January 2011, following the ousting of the Tunisian President. Many Egyptians realized that the overthrow of a ruling regime was possible. Some people tried to commit suicide in imitation of the suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia, a young fruit seller who set himself alight in the town of Sidi Bouzid in December 2010 in protest at the corruption and his inability to make a living. Activists and political groups invited people to demonstrate on 25 th January “National Police Day”, to protest against the political, economic and social situation in Egypt. On that day, Egypt witnessed unprecedented anti-government demonstrations which continued for the next few days. The government blocked Face book and Twitter on 27 th January, and also cut off all access to the networks and shut down the mobile phone services on the next day known as “Anger Friday” 1, which witnessed mass demonstrations across the country. Millions of protesters from a variety of socio-economic and religious backgrounds demanded the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime. The police killed about 840 persons and injured 6,000 in their efforts to suppress the demonstrations 2. On the night of ‘Anger Friday’, Mubarak sacked the cabinet and appointed a deputy president for the first time. He appointed the chief of the Egyptian General Intelligence, Omar Suleiman, to the post of vice president and appointed the 1KarimaKhalil , Messages from Tahrir : signs from Egypt's revolution , Cairo, The American University In Cairo Press, 2011, p8 2 http://www.almasryalyoum.com/node/385140 5 former minister of civil aviation Ahmad Shafiq, as prime minister, but the people refused to cease their demonstrations until they had toppled the ruling regime, especially after they became aware of the huge number of victims of a bloody massacre by the police when they staged a sit-in in Tahrir Square.3 On 1 st February, over a million people gathered to participate in a huge demonstration in the square. Mubarak declared, that night, he would not run for his sixth term at the next presidential election.4 The next day, Mubarak’s supporters stormed the square on camels and horsebacks to attack the demonstrators. The battle lasted until the following morning and enraged the people, who insisted on continuing their protest.5 After 18 days of this popular uprising, on 11 th February, Mubarak stepped down and handed over power to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.6 Hosni Mubarak had monopolized power for 30 years through rigged elections and was aiming to hand the presidency over to his son, Gamal. According to the Constitution, the President had the power both to appoint and dismiss the prime minister, his deputies, the ministers and their deputies. In Mubarak’s era, some politicians held their positions from the early 1980’s until they were ousted. According to law 46 of 1972, the president was responsible for appointing the judges of the court of Cessation and Supreme Court as well as the public 7 prosecutor and the attorney general. 3 http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/01/2011129155142145826.html 4 http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/01/egypt-protests-live-updates 5 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1352923/Egypt-crisis-Riots-death-toll-300-Hosni-Mubarak- mob-moves-8th-day.html 6 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12433045 7 MayeKassem, Egyptian politics: the dynamics of authoritarian rule , London, Lynne Rienner, 2004, p27, 28,36. 6 The level of government corruption was unprecedented in Egypt’s history. The Guardian newspaper published a report on 4th February 2011 that estimated the Mubarak family fortune to be US$70 billion. The assets of a minister in the Mubarak government or a leader of his National Party were estimated to amount to billions of Egyptian pounds.8 At same time, 41% of the Egyptian population was living in poverty, according to a human development report in 2010.9 Furthermore, the Ministry of the Interior employed torture to extract information or force confessions. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights documented 30 cases of torture during 2009. It also documented 567 cases of torture, including 167 deaths, by police between 1993 and 2007.10 Egypt had witnessed deterioration in all areas of life. According to one source, the number of people who died during a ferry accident on 13 February 2006, in burning trains, and in collapsed buildings was higher than the total number of people who have died in all of the wars that Egypt has ever fought.11 Egypt’s relationship with the United States and Israel: “For nearly 35 years, Egypt has kept saying yes without deviation to whatever the United States asks of it: in its foreign policy, its policy toward the Arabs, its relation with Israel and its economic policy. The result has been a 8 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/04/hosni-mubarak-family-fortune 9 http://aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6F413DF0-B4E7-4BDA-8D14-492BFC5682B0.htm 10 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Egyptian_revolution 11 -Alaa Al Aswany, On the state of Egypt: what caused the revolution, Edinburgh, New York Canongate, 2011 7 continuous decline in Egypt’s political and economic standing internationally and within the Arab world while Israel has been increasing its gains at Egypt’s and Arab expense”, wrote Egyptian Professor Galal Amin in his book, “Egypt in the Era of Hosni Mubarak 1981-2011”.12 Mubarak’s government was a very close ally of the United States and Israel, which meant that ousting his government might threaten American and Israeli interests in the Middle East. The United States tried to support Mubarak’s regime when the revolution began. In early January, US secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that “the Egyptian government was stable and looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people".13 Vice-President Joe Biden commented: “Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things and he has been very responsible on normalizing relationship with Israel…I would not refer to him as a dictator”.14 However, the American administration’s language changed gradually with the continuation of the demonstrations in Egypt. After several days, Secretary Clinton called for “an orderly transition to a democratic government”. She stated:”We want to see this peaceful uprising on the part of the Egyptian people to demand their rights in a very clear, unambiguous way by the government, and then a process of national dialogue will lead to the changes that the Egyptian people seek and that they deserve.” 15 On 1 st February, President Barack Obama told Hosni 12 Galal Amin, Egypt in the Era of Hosni Mubarak 1981-2011, Cairo, the American University in Cairo Press, 2011,p115,p 167 13 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12323751 14 Lloyd C. Gardner, the Road to TahrirSquare: Egypt and the United States from the Rise of Nasser to the Fall of Mubarak , London, Saqi Books, 2011, p186, 193 15 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12323751 8 Mubarak that the status quo was unsustainable, and that an orderly, peaceful transition must begin immediately. Obama described events in Egypt as the beginning of a new chapter in the history of a great country, and a longtime partner of the United States.16 In March, Hillary Clinton visited Egypt and invited the Revolution Youth Coalition to a meeting, but they refused to attend due to the Obama Administration’s stance towards the Egyptian revolution at the beginning.17 Israeli President Shimon Peres summarized his country’s attitude towards Egypt as follows: “Mubarak's contribution to peace will never be forgotten.