Fear and Media in Egypt...

Media is one of the controversial issues which began to appear recently because of its efficient rule in uncovering the government's institutions' corruption. There is no doubt that media is a very powerful tool in the hands of supposedly normal people. People like you and me, not belonging to the government, not belonging to corruption. (I'm not talking about governmental media here, it is obviously out of discussion. Anything connected to the government is corrupted until proved otherwise.)

There is a group of people which we call in Egypt "The Cultured". It is supposed that these people are something like the thinkers due to the state of long de-politicization applied since the era of revolution. These thinkers sometimes affect the wide scale of th society and sometimes not.

The problem is when these thinkers act so, what I can call, naive. Every person in Egypt know that the government is corrupted, and everyone knows that they will defend against any action done by the government. One of these tools is th media which act mainly on the thinkers and for a less degree on the people. Since these thinkers write articles and columns which usually are the material of TV and Satellite talk shows about internal or may I say Egyptian issues. The media is sometimes saturated by not-so-important cases or issues. For example this Hala Sarhan issue. I don't know why the heck do they attack the whole thing. Everyone knows that Egypt has prostitutes, just like anywhere else. It is the problem that Egypt has the largest population so any bad phenomenon will appear on a large scale, comparing to the rest of the Arab countries, esp Saudi Arabia (Rotana is a Saudi Channel). It does not need a program to assure it, with or without a program everyone knows that the police is corrupt in all the fields, not just with prostitutes. It makes me really furious.

When media is saturated with such secondary events, it gradually loses its effect. Media is now very powerful comparing to the beginning of the revolution. We have technology, and technology gave us freedom which was not available for our fathers and grandfathers who wanted democracy and true country administration.

The effect of this governmental terrorism (yes I call it terrorism since they discharge the people mind from important issues) is that people are so absorbed in useless discussions about useless issues. Why? because there is no danger when the discussion is about morals, esp with a society like ours, so concerned with the obvious things, not what really things are. But when the Media is deeply concerned with issues concerning the citizen himself, concerning his rights, concerning his security against this terrorist government, these people will gradually lose the feeling of fear, will gradually feel that it is their duty to gain their rights, to be human being. Not slaves like they are now...

The Media must protect itself from these shameful and idiotic tries to disengage Media from its original role in fighting the government terrorism and uncovering it. People responsible for the Media, you have a great burden on your shoulders, and you must act on the level of the high responsibility laid upon you. The real civil revolution is coming sooner or later, it will come next year, next decade, or even the next century. It will come, because nothing goes to the worse forever, there nothing called an absolute zero in the scope of human life. Be more intelligent and concentrate, PLEASE. Your importance is a major part of this nation's conscious.