An article mentionning Kareem Amer written by Clément Thiriau was published in Le Petit Journal on July17 2009. (in French) with the title « Malgré la presse privée et d’opposition, l’information reste très contrôlée » (Despite private and opposition press, information remains under tight control).

The article emphasizes the fact that pressures from the state jeopardize the press. Despite the long history of its numerous publications (with more than 500 titles, the most in the region) Egypt appeared in a « difficult situation » as ranking 146th on a list of 173 countries in the last Reporters Without Border classification about freedom of the press. Since january 2009 according to RWB, an average of a complaint a day is registered against a journalist or a blogger.

Though officially unconstitutionnal, censure is raging owing to the state of emergency. The main newspapers are in the hands of friends of the government. Free opposion press and independant press are mostly printed abroad and submitted to the censorship of foreign publications.

Thus internet became the space for freedom of expression. 20% of the Egyptian population is regularly surfing. But since 2007 the net is tightening. The blogger Kareem Amer became the symbol of repression on the Web. A law project is being discussed on creating emprisonnement sentences for « abusive use of internet ». Many bloggers have been arrested following the movements of the 6th of April. Several bloggers have been questionned and/or arrested at Cairo airport.

For the 4th time in a row, Reporters Without Borders has classified Egypt as one of the 12 countries qualified as « internet ennemies».

You can also read the whole report of Reporters without borders here.

Here is its first paragraph:

“The 12 ‘Enemies of the Internet’ – Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam – have all transformed their Internet into an Intranet in order to prevent their population from accessing ‘undesirable’ online information,” Reporters Without Borders said.