Local reporters and columnists have come out of their closets and now pick on the once taboo presidency and target President Hosni Mubarak himself and his rule on a daily basis.

"Some columnists have developed an expertise in irritating the president," notes Hisham Kassem, publishing director at Al Massry Al Youm daily.

Hisham, a former human rights activist, says that while reporting and comment on the nation's leader is tolerated, there are areas that still off-limits, especially defence and intelligence activities. Any journalist that dares to break this rule faces court marshal and jail terms. Any news related to defence and intelligence must be cleared before publication, according to Hisham.

"It is better if you just ignore such news altogether," he says.

Egyptian journalists have complained, saying that they cannot understand the rationale behind this restriction in a time when information is easily available through the Internet and other media. But Hani Shukraliah, a former journalist at Al Akhram weekly, says it has to do with the mindset of those in the uniform that everything related to defence must be secretive.

In fact, the Egyptian penal code also punishes journalists who publish statistics which are considered classified information.

After Egypt was defeated in the 1967 war with Israel, everything related to defence was considered classified and sensitive. That kind of mentality is still clearly present. Daily newspapers carry hardly any news about internal developments in the region's largest the country. Both the English-language papers - Egyptian Gazette and Daily Star - have lots of foreign news but little domestic news. From glancing through the papers over the past few days, there seems to be strong anti-American - even though Egypt is one of the largest recipients of US aid - and anti-Israeli sentiment. Meanwhile, an important public health issue like bird flu was not debated widely in the newspapers.

Hani says the local media was in denial for a long time because most of them were under government control, both print and electronic. "They looked outside to report on the Middle East conflict, which both the government and public can agree on. They did not want to stir up things locally," he observes.

However, that sort of benign attitude is no longer tenable because of the proliferation of satellite TV, especially the popular Al Jazeera. This station has helped widen the scope and content of coverage of Middle East and global affairs, according to Professor Hussein Amin of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the American University in Cairo.

He points out that the proliferation of satellite TV in the Middle East has influenced the region's news landscape, making it more open and less propagandist. "With just a switch of a channel you can get a different version of the truth and reports," he says.

During the 1967 war, Egyptian TV produced propaganda daily about the impending victory against Israel, even though the situation on the ground was completely the opposite. "Since then, the local TV broadcasters have suffered a credibility problem," he says.

Qatar-based Al Jazeera is now the biggest catalyst in shaping public opinion in Arab countries in the Middle East and Muslim countries around the world. Amin notes that more and more viewers are questioning the objectivity of Al Jazeera, whose reports never touch on its home country. The BBC World Arabic service will soon be launched and could have an impact on public views and awareness about Middle East politics. "The Arab public now want news that is reported accurately and objectively depicts their countries and the region," Amin says.

Al Jazeera has already shaken local broadcasters in Egypt, who remain very pro-government. Since satellite TV provides more information and deeper analysis from a non-partisan point of view, they have attracted a growing audience. Amin says that of late, local TV news in Arab countries has become better and less propagandist as they try to compete with satellite broadcasts.

Hisham at the Al Massry Al Youm daily says the print media now has more freedom to tackle issues of public concern. The independent, privately owned press is a new phenomenon because the press used to be tightly controlled by the government through licensing. Only government agencies and political parties were allowed to have their own publications. Only pro-government papers could get a printing licence. Publishers dodged the licensing problem by printing their newspapers in Cyprus and having them shipped back as imported publications.

"That way, local papers got away with the licensing problem," Hisham recalls. But the so-called Cypriot press became less popular as the government started granting more licences and allowed more press freedom, he says.

Kavi Chongkittavorn

The Nation