Journalism in the shadow of Mubarak

Egyptian state journalists reporting on politics during the 30-year regime of President Hosni Mubarak were regularly censored by the Egyptian Interior Ministry, said Rahman Al-Bakhry, the deputy editor of Middle East News Agency, Wakalet Inbaa alSharq alAwasat (MENA).

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Rahman Al Bakry, Deputy Editor of the Middle East News Agency, Egypt

Daniel Finnan in Cairo

"When we had something about the president and the people around him, when we had something about the crackdowns from police, I couldn't broadcast items unless I called some people in the interior ministry to call on it to be published," Al-Bakhry said during a sit-down interview with RFI in Cairo.

While admitting that MENA was not publishing the facts on the events that were unfolding in Tahrir Square up until Hosni Mubarak stepped down on 11 February, Al-Bakhry said that the agency was not able to report in a balanced manner.

"This is not good for our work. Many people attacked us for this, but these rules are against us and we are against it, but we can't change it," said Al-Bakhry.

The Middle East News Agency was founded in 1956.  A primary source of news and reports on the Middle East, it operates under the ownership of the Egyptian government.

But since 11 February, the policies and controls on MENA have been lifted-- for now.

"We have seen freedom since last Friday. Now we have the freedom to publish any item," he said. "Up until now, we haven't had any information from them or the directors. Now they give us free reign to do anything. They issue nothing to us [to print] so we manage the news as we like."

He believes that the agency will have less interference. "We can't say full freedom-- we have to keep in mind our interests, Egypt's interests. We are, we can say, 'semi-official,'" he said.

Although the country is now under the military, Al-Bakhry is unsure if this freedom will remain when the country moves towards a civilian government.

We must wait and see. We don't know which government will come. This is a problem," he said.