Egypt Media Sustainability Index (MSI)

About the MSI

IREX designed the MSI to measure the strength and viability of any country’s media sector. The MSI considers all the factors that contribute to a media system—the quality of journalism, effectiveness of management, the legal environment supporting freedom of the press, and more—to arrive at scores on a scale ranging between 0 and 4. These scores represent the strength of the media sector components and can be analyzed over time to chart progress (or regression) within a country. Additionally, countries or regions may be compared to one another. IREX currently conducts the MSI in 80 countries, and produced the first Middle East and North Africa MSI in 2005.

MSI Overview   | Africa  |  Asia  |  Europe & Eurasia  |  Middle East & North Africa

MSI Methodology

Download the Complete Egypt MSI Chapter (PDF): 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7 | 2005

MSI Egypt - 2009 Introduction

Overall Country Score: 2.07 

Egypt experienced many events in 2009 that affected the freedom of expression and freedom of the media. The political situation in Egypt, along with the Israeli military action in Gaza, heavily shaped the experience of journalists, bloggers, and media specialists.

Although serious attacks on journalists were rare, court cases against journalists and cases related to violations of publishing bans drew concern from the media and the public. Several bloggers received particular  attention from the state security and judiciary and were detained or handed jail sentences; some claimed to have been beaten by police. Regarding the legal framework, journalists point to the lack of an access-to-information law as a persistent roadblock to progress.

In other respects, the press enjoys unprecedented freedom. MSI panelist Fatmah Samir Rizk, an Egyptian Television News reporter, said that there has been a major shift in the media field in the past 10 years, with the emerging satellite networks, independent newspapers, and news websites compromising the regime's control over the media and causing the state-owned media to retreat. Space has opened for the independent media and the satellite channels to attract readers, listeners, and viewers. Some of these media report critically from different viewpoints, demonstrating the obvious momentum for change generated by modern and advanced technologies. The Internet provides Egyptians with greater, more affordable access to news, with about 63 newspapers and magazines online.

Egyptian media were not immune to economic concerns in 2009. The third edition of the Dubai Press Club's Arab Media Outlook: 2009-2013¹ point to an increasing number of Arab-language newspapers but falling sales in the four most important media markets in the region, including Egypt. The report noted that the international economic crisis has dampened Arab economies, including the media industry, leading to a fall in advertising revenues of around 14 percent in 2009, and the closure of a number of newspapers, including the Egyptian El Badeel, just launched in 2006. Still, from a regional perspective, Egyptians bought with the highest frequency—with 93 percent buying newspapers more than once a week, 33 percent buying daily, and 12 percent buying from four to six times a week. The report highlighted Egypt's thriving newspaper industry, with some of the oldest newspapers in the world, and several independent newcomers that launched following the success of Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Egypt's overall score suffered a setback of three-tenths of a point, compared with 2008. While Objectives 1 (freedom of speech) and 2 (professional journalism) remained roughly unchanged, Objectives 3 (plurality of news), 4 (business management), and 5 (supporting institutions) all lost significant ground. On balance, the Egyptian media sector is one of the most pluralistic and sophisticated in the Middle East; at the same time it is often subjected to the side effects of—or actively participates in—partisan bickering. Media that are willing to push the envelope of objective or critical coverage walk a fine line.

^{1"Arabic Media Outlook: 2009-2013." Dubai Press Club, 2009. Available in English at http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/arabmedia.pdf}