الملتقى التحضيري لمعسكرات الإعلام الحر، يناير 2014/English

Media in Egypt – An Intervention

Freedom of information and expression constitute not only a cornerstone value held by the Arab Digital Expression Foundation (ADEF), but is also one domain where the ADEF community actively engages in, working toward its enhancement and development both through direct implementation of programs and advocacy. Freedom of information and expression is a core cross-cutting value in all of ADEF’s work.

Within this context, and as a result of ADEF's network's growth with media players in the Arab region, particularly since the Arab uprisings, ADEF has found itself in a position where an intervention is not only necessary but extremely timely.

ADEF is proposing a three-day retreat that includes 25 prominent media professionals who have over the past three years proposed and affected a new narrative in institutional media. The overall aim of this gathering is to discuss new ways of intervention to work on the many challenges faced in this profession in Egypt.

Main subjects to be tackled include control by the state, a generally conservative social climate, and the misconception that quality expression should only be practiced by professionals. Lack of financial resources, unrefined skills and talents, geographic misfortunes such as being out of the capital in a highly centralized ecosystem, absence of adequate production and display venues, along with difficulties in accessing distribution and publishing networks, only compound the problem. ADEF’s interventions are structured to target these issues within a process to reach practical propositions of working with a younger generation who could be the pioneers of a new media proposition.

The expected results of this retreat is building of a group of stakeholders who will collaboratively come up with a conceptual note for an intensive plan of action to undertake with the younger generation. This retreat is to be considered the first stage of a longer process – initially planned for 2014-2015 – during which ADEF along with partners such as IMS would develop activities constituting a serious effort to impact an intervention in media in Egypt. As of October 2013, ADEF initiated a series of brainstorming sessions with media stakeholders who have new propositions following their intensive work over the past three years. Ideas such as the vital need to create new institutions built on new value systems, sustainability for such institutions, building skill and capacities.

ADEF perceives this intervention as one that can contribute in shedding a clear light to what form of sustainable media that can emerge from successful existing collectives and for new collectives. The aim, thus, is to form a proposition. ADEF's process is to brainstorm with stakeholders using our methodology and framework, develop a solid concept, then a process of intervention design to finally reach a comprehensive proposition that would be the infrastructure affecting both attitudes and skills needed for future activities in media.