Conversation with Egyptian journalist Shahira Amin gives important inside on the media situation in Egypt today

The Egyptian journalist Shahira Amin has been working for the Egyptian state TV for more than 20 years. Since she was working for the channel Nile TV which broadcasts in English, she had more freedom addressing certain issues than colleagues working in Arabic. Nevertheless she decided to quit on the 3^rd of February 2011. In May 2011 she accepted to come back to Nile TV, but this time on her own terms. However she realized how little changed for journalists after the revolution when she was reporting about the virginity tests the army was undertaking on female protesters from Tahrir square. 

During a conversation we had with her over the phone on February 1^st 2012 she told us that corruption and censorship worsened since the fall of Mubarak. According to her, the army has simply replaced Mubarak and is even more rigorous concerning critical journalists. She claimed to be herself a victim of threats and of a campaign of defamation led by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces. However during the conversation she also pointed out some little improvements and changes. She noticed for example that journalists are more willing to take risk and to write about controversial topics since the revolution. In addition to that, she says that even among people from lower social classes, which can’t afford satellite TV, the skepticism towards state TV is growing. The most significant sign for a change that occurred after the revolution is in her opinion the fact that the society lost its fear. One adequate example for that loose of fear is to her mind that the women who were forced to take the virginity test decided to sue the army for perpetrating those test against their will. The conversation with Shahira Amin left us with an overall optimistic feeling, even though it became clear once more that Egypt still has a very long way ahead of itself.