Among the terrified journalists is 23yearold photojournalist Mosa'ab Elshamy. Elshamy
has been taking significantly fewer photos because he is afraid of being thrown into jail.
Elshamy covered fewer stories and spent less time on the streets, while several of his
colleagues decided to flee the country instead. "The change is huge and it's tangible," he
says. "The little achievements and the little freedoms that people got from the revolution
have been taken away. People are back to this fear." Elshamy's fears are realistic,
considering that his brother has been jailed since August. Luckily Elshamy hasn't been
jailed yet.
On January 21 2013 Elshamy began a hunger strike in protest of the recent jailing of
the journalists. Some of the AlJazeera staff are among the 13 jailed journalists currently in
Egypt. Egypt is now amongst the top ten countries to jail journalists in the world. Many
people believe that the current attack on the press is the worst in history. The silencing of
opinions goes beyond journalists. A man named Amr Hzawy is facing charges because of
a tweet in which he questioned a court ruling. All people are being threatened for
expressing their opinions. The governments tight
Bibliography
1."Egypt's Commitment to Press Freedom on Trial." BBC News. BBC, 19 Feb. 2014. Web. 5 Mar.
2014.
2.Craggs, Ryan. "Egypt Revolution Death Toll: Arab Network for Human Rights Information
Documents 841 Killed." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 15 May 2012. Web. 11 Mar.
2014.
3.Khalil, Shaimaa. "Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Changes Tactics amid Crackdown." BBC News. BBC
News, Cairo, 3 Nov. 2013. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.