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On State Repression of Journalists: A Comparison of Egypt's Treatment of Print Journalists and Bloggers, 2004 to 2008
Abstract
The Committee for the Protection of Journalists reported that Internet journalists comprised the worldwide plurality of imprisoned media workers for a second year in 2009. Such a statistic gives pause to those that question the political impact of individuals who use the Internet to share information, bloggers prominent among them. The governments of the world have responded to those who use this novel media to share political information and opinions with the high levels of repression. Do authoritarian regimes, those that are most likely to take repressive action against members of the press, see the bloggers' activities as a serious threat to their powere Are bloggers political activists, have they fomented social movements in some placese Or, are bloggers simply inviting higher levels of repression by substantially going beyond the norms of political speechc In short: what explains the higher level of repression against bloggersr In this paper I use the case of Egypt to argue that institutions for collecting information and constraining or co-opting journalists play an important role in the levels of repression authoritarian regimes employ. In particular, I focus on five years of President Mubarak's regime marked by high levels of political activism and a corresponding rise in the level of state repression. Newswire stories of instances in which Egyptian journalists experienced state repression to provide the evidence necessary to test the hypotheses that I derive from my argument. During the five years in question, 2004 through 2008, I find 74 cases of repression against journalists of all types in Egypt reported by the Associated Press (AP), Agence France Press (AFP) and United Press International (UPI). Fourteen of these are bloggers and 38 are newspaper reporters. Using this evidence, I demonstrate that the variations in the degree and type of repression experienced by print journalists and bloggers can be explained, in part, by corporatism in the print media sector and journalists' involvement with opposition movements. Moreover, it appears that the Mubarak regime is using the judicial system as a mechanism of punishment; adding to the growing body of literature detailing the judicialization of politics in Egypt. The judicial and other institutional changes that the authoritarian state in Egypt is pursuing to reduce the need for, and costs associated with, repression of those sharing information online demonstrate the continued resilience and flexibility of the Mubarak regime.
Discipline
Political Science
Geographic Area
Egypt
Sub Area
None