The 234 articles of Egypt’s new draft constitution have been approved by the country’s constituent assembly, and the charter will now be voted on by the public in a referendum. Proponents have hailed the arrival of a constitution they say enshrines the values of the revolution, but when it comes to journalists’ rights, observers fear that despite the charter’s recognition of press freedom, articles outlawing insults could be used to restrict commentary and debate.
Reports and analyses say that it is unclear to what extent the state’s role in upholding morality could affect press freedom and other human rights. Freedom of expression and media freedom are protected in theory, but other provisions offer vague prohibitions on insulting “humans” and insulting “messengers and prophets”.
Laws that criminalise “insults” are considered detrimental to press freedom and freedom of expression because in many countries, including Egypt, such laws have been used to silence those who criticise officials or official policies. Under both former President Hosni Mubarak and President Mohammed Morsi, journalists have been prosecuted using laws that criminalize insults to the president and other public servants.
The pan-African 2007 Declaration of Table Mountain, adopted by a broad array of media representatives and civil society members, including IPI and the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, identified “as the greatest scourge of press freedom on the [African] continent the continued implementation of ‘insult laws’, which outlaw criticism of politicians and those in authority, and criminal defamation legislation, both of which are used indiscriminately in the vast majority of African states that maintain them and which have as their prime motive the ‘locking up of information’.”
IPI Deputy Director Anthony Mills said: “We are concerned that a draft constitution that does not properly protect freedom of the media has been rushed into being, and could result in Egyptian journalists facing many of the same restrictions that they did in the past.”
A report published in Egypt Independent last month raised other concerns. The author, Leyla Doss, noted that the constitution permits censorship in times of war, when in fact press freedom is crucial all the time. The report also noted that the draft charter fails to provide for “mechanisms and independent bodies” that will guarantee media independence from state oversight.
Egypt’s constituent assembly this week rushed to pass the draft constitution before Sunday, in order to preempt a decision by Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court that could have resulted in the group’s dissolution, news reports said.
Legal and political battles over the constituent assembly have gone on for months. Opposition members argue that the constituent assembly is not representative of Egyptian society and that its Islamist-dominated composition has led to a draft in which human rights, particularly the rights of women and religious minorities, are insufficiently protected. Members of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and their allies, however, have argued that their dominance in the recent parliamentary and presidential elections should have an effect on the constitutional process.
