Questions on Assaults against Journalists in Egypt A survey on a sample of Journalists (Executive summary) Preface: On 29th January 2011, "Ahmed Mahmoud", an Egyptian journalist, was standing in the window of his office, recording with mobile what is taking place in "Lazoughly's Quarter", in front of which his press foundation is located, when unexpectedly shot. Ahmed, who was seriously injured, died on 4th February. Ahmed's story was one of many other stories, telling us about those who tried document the scenes of persecuting demonstrators, and their suffering amid the clouds of tear gases. There were similar repeatedly violent incidences which took place before, and after the 25th January revolution, during which many Egyptian Journalists lose their eyes, were seriously injured, and were assaulted, either verbally or physically. Almasry Studies and Information Center, made a survey to scout cases of violence against Egyptian Journalists, define to how extent they tend to, or refrain from taking serious actions against their offenders, name the causes of their various attitudes towards the offenders in particular, and towards such an issue in general, as well as their reason, and evaluation for the role of the parties concerned. The research team designed a survey form consisting of 12 questions which have to do with the objective and the thesis of the research, besides other five questions related to the characteristics of the sample surveyed from 15th March to 10th April 2012. The research team collected 324 forms, 312 of which were correct and apt to the statistic analysis. The Journalists surveyed represented 60 national, private, and party press foundations, besides other Arabic and foreign press agencies.
Key results: 1. Cases of assaults: 71.8% of journalists surveyed said they were exposed to assaults during their missions. The Journalists named a number of assaults, and the percentage of their occurrence comes as follows: (Note: the sum is more than 100% because some journalists selected more than one assault.) 55.1% of Journalists said the assault they were exposed to came in the form of preventing from attending an event. 53.8%: verbal assault 26%: reservation of the Journalist's tools 22.4%: deprivation of the syndicate cards. 20.8%: beat not lead to injury 19.9%: temporal detention in a civil place 16% :surveillance and tracking 13.8% :smashing the Journalist's tools 13.1%:call for investigation before prosecutor 12.8%: temporal detention in a police station 12.2%: shot not lead to injury 11.9%: harassment 9.3%: beat requiring treatment 7.1%: arrest 6.7%: temporal detention in a military place 3.5%: call for investigation before the military prosecutor 2.2%: gunshot or cartridges 1.6%: abduction
1.3%: other assaults, such as deleting photos on the memory card, or armed threatening. Four Journalists said that the assaults they faced lead to total or partial disability. 2. Believing in the deliberate targeting of Journalists: While 81.8% of Journalists pointed they were targeted because of their career, 8.9% said they believe, to some extent, that they are attacked just because of being Journalists, and 9.4% don’t have such a belief at all. As 16.5% of journalists illustrated that displaying the identification card increases the assaults against them, 59.1% supported to some extent, and 24.4% opposed. 3. Reactions after assaults..Active and passive While 38.4% of Journalists pointed that they didn't take any actions after being assaulted, others illustrated the following: (Note: the sum is more than 100% because some of the journalists selected more than one reaction) 82.8%: told their newspaper 20.3%: told the Journalists Syndicate 18.1%: reported the police 15.9%: issued a press release to tell about the incidence. 15.9%: told an Egyptian civil organization 13%: reported the prosecutor. 4.3%: told an international organization 8%: take other actions such as calling their acquaintances, or re-assaulting the offender. Whereas 35.5% of those who took actions said they are doing the same after each assault, 41.3% pointed that they
are doing so sometimes, and 23.2% said they are rarely doing so. While 41.7% of journalists who were reporting certain bodies when exposed to assaults pointed that the bodies reported did nothing, others said that they did the following: 23.8% of the bodies reported issued a release condemning the assault 13.1% help in taking a legal action against the offender 4.2% offered a medical treatment 4.2% reported the general prosecutor 3.6% asked the journalist for evidence, but the journalist was unable to provide it. 1.8% offered a financial compensation 7.7% took other actions such as providing new tools for those whose tools were smashed. The justifications of those who didn't take any actions came as follows: 44.2% said that anybody wouldn't take actions 39.5% said they think the assault was not report worthy. 38.4% said any action would not be effective 17.4% did not know how to react 14% were afraid that reporting might passively affect them in workplace. 4.7% felt a afraid. 3.5%
said their news paper prohibit taking any
actions 2.3% were threatened
3.5% had other reasons such as, "I was afraid that people might say I'm trading", "there are not parties concerned to report in crises times", "I was unable to provide evidence". 4. Journalists' attitudes towards "violence against journalists" in general, and their causes: Whereas 65.7% of journalists surveyed said they believe that Journalists in Egypt suffer harassments hindering their missions, 31.4 % of them responded, "To some extent, and 2.9% answered, "No". Journalists defined various reasons for the assaults they faced: 76.2%: the absence of strict laws to protect Journalists. 70.6%: the general decline of freedoms in Egypt. 59.1%: the lack of awareness about the importance of journalist s and their mission. 56.4: the weak role of the Journalists' Syndicate. 53.5% security apparatus targeting journalists. 50.8%: weak role of the Supreme Council of Press. 45.9% the weak role of press foundations. 35.3%: Journalists do not know their rights. 29.8%: journalists do not know how to safely cover incidences in Hazardous areas. 22.4% the feeble role of civil organizations. 3.3%: other reasons such as, the security apparatus ignorance of the important role of journalists, the public culture that does not pay attention to the importance of being a journalist, press foundations fear of security apparatus, lack of professional journalists, and the journalists not being assigned to the Journalists syndicate. 5. The evaluation of the parties concerned When arranging the different parties as far as the attention they pay to assaults against journalists is concerned, we found: Egyptian civil associations are the most party concerned, and then comes the Journalists' Syndicate.
The Supreme Council of Press was the least party concerned, and then comes the Liberties Committee of the People's Assembly. The press foundations were the Sixth party concerned in the list of the seven parties concerned.