Investments in the media are not on the current political agenda. Experts speak openly of “death of journalism”. Amid the global journalism crisis, Egypt’s media system struggles for its financial survival, professional quality and recognition among young generations.

The state engages in methods that apply legal authoritarianism to convey an impression of observing the rule of law, while in fact restricting freedoms and, in addition, controlling the political economy through indirect state capitalism, where media ownership stays within the state or the loyalist business elite, in particularly the popular audio-visual media. The political and legal framework has been dominated by mainly illiberal phases, with brief intermittent phases of liberalization that led to short-lived flourished media landscapes. These include the geo-political position that made possible an early contact to the colonial French expedition which introduced the print press technologies and the restrictive political role of all subsequent rulers, whether foreign or Egyptian, in regulating and shaping possible media outlets as well as Egypt’s close connections to the evolution of global communication technologies.

Reviewing the history of the Egyptian media system shows that three elements have influenced the evolution of the country’s media system. Analyzing the current situation in Egypt does not disclose its status as a country with 200 years of history in journalism in the region, which has been marked by struggles and paradoxes. The Egyptian media system shows a stark paradox: Despite its long history and pioneering position in the Arab media landscape, under the current authoritarian trends today the media system has extremely blocked potentials for the possibility of independent media and journalism.

Negative legacies of ancient egypt