Doing journalism in Egypt: from the Arab spring to El-Sisi

The 2011 Tahrir Square protests in Egypt, in addition to ushering in hopes of democracy also opened a window of opportunity in the search for media independence after decades of dictatorship. But the coup of 2013 and the subsequent violent repression of human rights (which has led to more than 60,000 arrests) have raised exponentially the risks both to Egyptian journalists not aligned with the regime and to foreign correspondents. Doing journalism in in Egypt has never been so dangerous and at the same time so fundamental in reporting on a country that is a key Western ally in the Mediterranean.