On Misr newspaper which is an Egyptian online newspaper.

Legal and Ethical Issue of Online Journalism

Journalists, at times, are able to undermine the credibility of the profession by not following ethical practices. But journalists affiliated with news organizations are watched by an entire staff of ethical police: editors. A news organization needs journalists to follow ethical guidelines to maintain its credibility, which is directly related to its financial success.



    This circumstance is arguably different from some other professions, in which corporate organizations with a financial motive sometimes undermine ethical conduct to save money.Citizen journalism advocates argue that the marketplace acts as an enforcer of ethical conduct.

However, the professional journalist is also accountable to the news organization; the citizen journalist is accountable only to a vast marketplace that may or may not provide an ongoing motive for ethical conduct.

     Citizen journalism argue that bloggers must be more transparent than traditional media. Traditional news organizations value balanced reporting, but that isn’t necessarily an ethical mandate in the realm of citizen journalists. Even advocacy websites with a clear conservative or liberal point of view can be seen as reliable if the information they provide is substantiated.

     However, some media ethics experts say citizen journalists cannot act ethically if they don’t know or understand the traditional ethical codes of conduct. Andy Schotz, a reporter for The Herald-Mail, a daily newspaper in Hagerstown, Maryland and Chairman of The Society of Professional Journalists’ Ethics Committee, said it is difficult for consumers of citizen journalism to discern what content has been thoroughly and ethically gathered and what content is inaccurate or biased. click here

Censorship in Egypt

     While the President determines the main policy of the State, the council of ministers supervises its implementation, and ministerial responsibility to 4 the legislature is constitutionally established. The four main political parties are the ruling National Democratic Party,  the Socialist Workers Party, the Liberal Socialist Party and the Unionist Progressive Party Under the international pressure and that of the Egyptian nongovernmental organizations and fierce competition from the Arab and Egyptian Private Media, in addition to the pressure of businessmen and opposition leaders to expand democracy and freedom ofthe press. 

Hosny Mubarak

    President Hosni Mubarak – unlike his two predecessors – has moved towards more press freedom and lifted many of the restrictions and censorship. Before the 2011's revolution, the Egyptian press under Mubarak operates far more freely than the media in the majority of Arab and African countries. The government has been patient of both criticism in the media and political protests and demonstrations but has sometimes wavered in its commitment, jailing protesters and dissidents and displaying overwhelming police presence at demonstrations. However, The Egyptian government owns controlling shares in the three main daily newspapers in Egypt, Al Ahram, Al Akhbar and Al Gomhuriya. click here

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Ibrahim Essa

    Ibrahim Essa, the Egyptian famous journalist who became a victim of the censorship in Egypt in 2009, however, he stated that the last president of Egypt, Mubarak was sick which was a crime when a journalist states anything touched the president. As a result, Essa faced three years in a prison.




    After the 2011's revolution, AlJazeera journalists staff have arrested  by the Egyptian government as they were working illegal, however, they worked on covering the clashes in 2013 between the police and the Muslim brotherhood. more following

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