Media of Egypt

Egypt media is highly influential in the Arabic world and has started to gain more freedom from its government.

For years the media in Egypt has had its restrictions put on by the government. This happened because a lot of the media outlets in Egypt are owned by the government. Several journalists or broadcasters have been arrested for for breaching laws that prohibit criticism of the President, state institutions and foreign leaders, or "putting out false news harming the reputation and interests of the country". However criticism of the government continues to take place. Pan-Arab channels such as Al-Jazeera are also very popular among viewers, especially for news, as private broadcasters are forbidden to broadcast their own news, instead only focusing on entertainment or music.

But since 2005 things have started to change. With freedom of media guaranteed in their Constitution the government is starting to respect this more. With the 2005 presidential election, Ahmed Selim, office director for Information Minister Anas al-Fiqi, declared the era of a "free, transparent and independent Egyptian media." To this day he has been right with more and more restrictions being taken off of the Egyptian media.