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The Square on Screen
Elsayed
25-5-2011
LEAD-IN:
There was more than one battle during the twenty fifth of January’s
revolution; one was the grounds of Tahrir and the other was between the State T-V
and the international news channels, with each trying to convey a certain image of the
revolution to the millions of viewers. Yasminah Elsayed reports for A-U-C News.
NAT SOUND: Omar Suleiman announcing Mubarak’s step down (:5)
SFX: Rewind (:3)
MUSIC: BBC News theme (:55)
NAT SOUND: Sound of protests and excerpts from news (:11)
While many Egyptians went down the streets protesting on January twenty fifth,
many more were at home watching closely what was happening down the square.
It is undeniable that television had a great impact on the revolution, but to what extent
did it really mobilize or demobilize the people? Radwa Mobarak, a mass
communication professor at A-U-C, explains the situation this way.
MUSIC: Genova by Charles Atlas (:45)
MOBARAK: “The difference between TV and any other
media is that TV provides you with pictures. When I
open Aljazeera, and I see all these numbers on TV, it
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will encourage me to go, because I know that this is not
a group, that this is not for example a specific party;
this is a popular thing.”(:15)
Mobarak explains further
MOBARAK: “How many people in Egypt have the
internet? How many people are on Facebook? How
many people are on Twitter? Not too many. But the TV,
how many people does the TV reach in Egypt? This is
the scale. Yes, we can for example take a video of
what’s happening in Tahrir and Twitter it or Facebook
it. But, when the TV channels takes this video from
Twitter or Facebook and put it in its new bulletin then it
makes all the difference”(:27)
SHOEIR: “I should probably tell you what happened;
on the twenty fifth of January I was watching TV and
you know it just seemed like a couple of hundred people
down there and I thought why is everybody making a
bid deal out of it, it’s just a protest and you know the
Interiors Ministry and State Security are going to clear
it up literally in about a couple of hours.” (:15)
Mirette shoeir is an A-U-C student who was at home when the revolution broke out.
After watching the events closely on T-V, Shoeir decided to become more than just a
spectator.
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SHOEIR: “As I continued watching and it began going
into the small hours in the morning;, at two o’clock,
four o’clock, I noticed something very strange; people
weren’t going home and they were chasing the police
out of Tahrir Square and that’s when I started to realize
that something serious was going on. On the twenty
eighth, it really looked like a war zone down there and
you really realized that this is a revolution happening.
And yeah, I felt that we had to do something about it;
we had to join in.” (:45)
The T-V’s impact did not only reach out to those who were staying at home but, it
was down there on the square as well.
SHOEIR: “There was this huge banner. I don’t know
how long. And it was saying a special thanks to
Aljazeera, BBC Arabic and Al-Hurra and all the news
channels who were broadcasting the truth and shame
on state media. And it was right in the middle of Tahrir
Square. So, I think that says a lot to go to the expense of
printing that out and hanging it up.”(:10)
Along with being a professor at A-U-C, Mobarak worked for State T-V and had
firsthand experience witnessing how State TV handled the situation during the
revolution.
MOBARAK: “State television is part of the regime; no
matter what we say, no matter what we do. This is what
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we call State television. By State we don’t mean
Egyptians; we mean the regime in power.” (:13)
Mobarak continues.
MOBARAK: “I remember on Wednesday, the day of
Mawke’et El Gamal, What happened is that we had one
of the reporters over there in Tahrir square, not only
one reporter; there were three reporters on the scene
with three different cameras. What happened is that
they were reporting on the scene when Anas Al-Fiki
called the Head of the News Sector, Abdel-latif ElManawy, and told him to get back all the cameras in
Tahrir square. This order came when Mawke’et El
Gamal started.” (:30)
NAT SOUND: CNN broadcast of The Battle of the Camel (:10)
MOBARAK: “I know people, reporters, who were
standing with the army between the protestors and
between the thugs. And the cameras caught things on
tape and all of these tapes were taken and the cameras
were returned and the reporters were returned and
what was there was a beautiful view of the Nile. This is
what was on air.” (:23)
MUSIC: Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky (:6)
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On any other occasion perhaps the scene of the Nile would have been a good idea, but
that time it was just … well.
SHOEIR: “It gave an image of general peace around
Cairo. And you know empty streets in itself are already
a clue that something serious is going on, when the 6th
of October Bridge has no cars on it.” (:10)
SFX: Birds chirping (:3)
MOBARAK: “It provoked people. Even the people
working at TV were provoked by this scene, by this shot
of the Nile. They were demanding, where are the
cameras in Tahrir?” (:14)
MUSIC: Pink Panther by Henry Mancini (:15)
Good question! So, where were the cameras again? Were they perhaps stolen? Or may
be broken? Well, you’ll be surprised.
MOBARAK: “There were cameras on the Nile
definitely, there were cameras in Tahrir, there were
cameras in front of TV, there were cameras that weren’t
let out because some people decided not to take the
cameras out fearing that the cameras would not return
back safe and they will have to pay for them” (0:21)
MUSIC: Pink Panther by Henry Mancini (:5)
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A simple question that probably crossed some people’s minds, during the revolution
was; whether the Egyptian media was broadcasting the truth or not? And if not, then
who was behind it?
MOBARAK: “Who was basically on top of this
hierarchy in the television building? The minister, Anas
El-Fiki was one of the people of the regime. At a certain
point in time when people really did not know what to
believe exactly; the internet was cut, people could not
reach the people in Tahrir square, what was he doing?
He was terrorizing people.” (:25)
The terror campaign was carried out by some State T-V reporters and anchors, who
faked phone calls spreading false rumors that the protestors were all foreign agents.
NAT SOUND: Tamer from Ghamra crying on State TV (:8)
MOBARAK: “The very same day of Mawke’et ElGamal at night, you can see one of the most prominent
news anchors on channel one, who is now presenting
Masr Enaharda; Reham Ibrahim. She was on air saying
‘korat mn allahab! Korat mn allahab!’ She was saying
that there were fire balls falling on the protestors, and
she was calling on the protestors to go back home and I
think this is a campaign.” (0:31)
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One of the most controversial coverage of the revolution was that of Al-Jazeera. Some
people believed it to be biased towards the protestors, while others believed it to be
objective.
MUSIC: Al-Jazeera theme (:4)
MOBARAK: “What I liked about the coverage of AlJazeera is the live coverage. They used to just put the
camera there and open it for people to see what’s going
on in Tahrir square but, I thought that their coverage
was somehow biased when it came to specific
things.”(:15)
SHOEIR: “No! No, I think that Al-Jazeera always gets
the short end of the stick over any event that happens. I
just think they’re very focused on what’s happening so
people say that they’re biased, they’re not. They’re just
covering it from a very close perspective and if you’re
right there and people are getting shot and you have
that on camera and you air it, people might say you’re
biased, but you’re just telling the truth; you’re just
showing what happened.”(:35)
During the revolution several journalists and media people faced hard times, Professor
Walid Kazziha, a prominent political science professor at A-U-C, explains what
happened.
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KAZZIHA: “This period was a very tough period for
journalists and media people. Several journalists were
beaten up; the ones of Al-Arabiya, the ones of AlJazeera. Associated Press and Al-Jazeerah offices were
attacked by mainly security people.” (:27)
NAT SOUND: Journalist being attacked (:11)
KAZZIHA: “This was deliberate attack; their cameras
were taken away from them, the furniture was stolen.
During the events journalists were targeted.” (:11)
SFX: Old projector
MUSIC: Sawt Al-Watan by Um Kalthoum
In nineteen fifty-two, Um Kalthoum sang Sawt Al-Watan after the success of the
revolution with the overthrowing of King Farouk. On July twenty third of the same
year, the free officers took control of the State media building to broadcast the news
of the coup’s success on the radio. Walid Kazziha narrates his memories of the event.
KAZZIHA: “I remember that Anwar Sadat gave the first
communiqué; Al-Bayan Al-Awal.” (:10)
NAT SOUND: Anwar Sadat’s first communiqué (:5)
“By 1952, political parties became ineffective in Egypt like
we felt probably in 2010, 2011. That we need to change, and
that we need to change desperately. I think the same kind of
air and atmosphere emerged at that time.” (:30)
Surprisingly, when the coup succeeded, professor Kazziha was not very happy.
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“When Nasser’s coup took place, I did not have a good
impression towards it because, it was a military coup. In my
memory military coups were not the right ways of change. It
was associated with repressive measure of the army and
elimination of freedom of expression.” (:27)
But professor Kazziha’s initial impression soon changed.
KAZZIHA: “I think things began to change in my mind when
Nasser raised the idea of Arab unity. When the Egyptian
coup was transformed to declared Egypt as an Arab country
willing to share with the other Arab countries their destiny.”
(:23)
The events of the twenty third of July might not have been greatly influenced by the
media as much as the case was on January twenty fifth; however, the media’s role
grew more as the revolution developed.
KAZZIHA: “The revolution was aware of the power of the
media and that if you want to have an impact outside your
own borders, you don’t only take trips outside and meet
other leaders, but you also work on the media to reach the
people outside.” (:27)
As for the media channels that were present at that time
KAZZIHA: “They had Cairo Radio, they had Sawt Al-Arab
with very powerful broadcast, technically very powerful;
they could reach all parts of the Arab world. Cairo used to
broadcast to African countries in their own language and
there was also broadcasting to Israel in Hebrew.” (:30)
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NATSOUND: Radio Cairo broadcasting in Hebrew (:10)
KAZZIHA: “I think after the tri-partied aggression on Egypt
in nineteen fifty six, the Egyptian media went in full swing to
the outside world and it was quite effective. But, that time TV
wasn’t a major instrument of the media in third world
countries. “(:26)
On the twenty fifth of January, Egypt’s history took a different turn. It was the people who
steered the wheel; it was the people who used the different media channels to decide their
destiny.
KAZZIHA: “I think I’ve learnt that time for change is
something, something that you feel. And it lasts for a long
time until someone comes and gives a push to the existing
political order and then afterwards it’s everyone’s guess;
you could go backward or you could go forward.” (:26)
MUSIC: Ehlam Ma’aya by Hamza Namira (:57)
Translation:
“Dream with me,
Of a tomorrow that’s coming,
And if it doesn’t come,
We’ll bring it ourselves.
We’ll stride upon this path,
Our many footsteps will lead us to our dream.”
Special thanks to: Professor Walid Kazzhia, Professor Radwa Mobarak and Mirette Shoeir.
CNN News and Radio Cairo. Music: BBC News theme, Aljazeera News theme, Pink Panther
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by Henry Mancini, Genova by Charles Atlas, The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky, Sawt AlWatan by Um Kalthoum, and Ehlam Ma’aya by Hamza Namira