A week after former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak gave in to mass protests and resigned his post, the International Press Institute (IPI) calls on the military council to protect press freedom in the coming transition period.

IPI calls on the authorities to allow local and foreign reporters to do their work freely, without fear of detention, hindrance or censorship of any kind. Furthermore, newsroom managers at government-owned media must be free to set their own editorial policies without pressure or oversight from any political group.

Free and fair coverage of events is crucial to ensuring that elections planned for later this year are also free and fair.

“The role of the media is more important now than ever before in Egypt, which is moving through a political transition,” said IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills. “Reporters should not have to fear violence or political pressure, and should be given full access to the information they need about the government, military and the economy, so that Egyptians can be fully informed in the run-up to elections later this year.”

There were several challenges to the free flow of information during the two weeks of protests that resulted in the former president’s resignation on 11 February, including the shutdown of Internet access and of cellular telephone networks. On 4 February, pro-Mubarak protesters clashed with anti-Mubarak groups in Cairo, and even as Internet and mobile phone service returned, violence against journalists escalated to unprecedented levels. Foreign correspondents and their news crews in particular were targeted, although local media houses were also assaulted and forced to leave their offices.

According to IPI research, reporters and photographers from at least 42 news organizations from many countries were physically attacked during the Cairo clashes.  Meanwhile, journalists at state-owned media in some cases resigned their posts or held their own internal “revolutions,” reports said, moving away from the tactic of downplaying the protests. They too came under pressure, as anti-Mubarak protesters reportedly surrounded their offices in the days before Mubarak resigned.

Prior to the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak, journalists had to contend with the supervising eye of the authorities, which monitored Internet use and enforced red lines in media coverage, as IPI reported in its 2009 World Press Freedom Review