Dr. Bahaa Helmy Writes: The Viewer's Right to Media Protection

One evening in 2012, during Muslim Brotherhood rule, a satellite channel announced a discussion program of special importance to the Egyptian people and the world, so that everyone would learn the truth about the confrontations between the police and demonstrators in January 2011, as it put it – a discussion between a political activist and a security expert on the international standards for the use of force by the police and the method of restructuring the security establishment.

In the program, the security expert cited some of the numbers of the laws and ministerial decrees regulating the cases in which the police may use force and the arming of its personnel. At that point the political activist angrily interrupted him in a loud voice, pointing to some papers in his hand that he claimed were copies of the decrees in question that he had obtained, announcing their number and year of issue. Then voices rose and the program ended without any useful information being obtained. What is both comic and tragic is that everything the security expert announced and everything the political activist pointed to at that time was wrong, contrary to the truth in every respect, and inconsistent with the documents and decrees that were available to us at the time. Some tried to call the program to correct the mistaken concepts and information each of them was presenting, but the satellite channel's officials did not allow the correction at the time. In those days of Egypt's history, we heard a great deal about political, human rights, social and women's activists, as well as experts in all fields, without their having practical or academic qualifications or any experience in what they were talking about, especially in political and economic matters. Professional standards disappeared and media work turned into deliberate chaos, until the June 2013 Revolution came and the Egyptian people had their say and took their steps, after which the role of activists who had no profession faded. The 2014 Constitution of Egypt then proclaimed the rights and freedoms of all citizens and the subjection of everyone, including the State and its institutions, to the rule of law. The Constitution obliged the Supreme Council for Media Regulation to regulate audio and visual media affairs and to set the rules and standards for the media's commitment to the principles and ethics of the profession, and established that information and data are the right of every citizen and that the State is obliged to provide them and make them available to citizens transparently. The Press Law was enacted, prohibiting media organizations from breaching the obligations in the professional code of honor, requiring them to respect the ethics and traditions of the profession and not to violate any of the rights of citizens, and obliging all media outlets to correct any wrong information they have published or broadcast. The Consumer Protection Law was also passed, defining the consumer as any person to whom a product or service is provided, the supplier as any person who carries out an activity or provides a service, and the advertiser as the person who advertises or promotes a good or service, himself or through others, using any media, advertising or digital means. Recently, however, there has been much talk and comment on some social media sites about some of the experts hosted in the media lacking any academic qualification or experience that would qualify them to give opinions on matters affecting society, which conveys mistaken notions. Here the question arises: what are the criteria on which guests of media programs are chosen? Are guests chosen according to professional standards, from multiple perspectives, and from among those with qualifications and experience in the subjects they discuss, or are relatives and acquaintances brought in for the sake of false fame and spreading negative behavior in society? The list of experts' titles grows day by day, and awareness programs are mixed with publicity and advertising programs: there are experts in energy, cosmetics, horoscopes, human development, sculpture, dentistry, sport and every field, and everyone weighs in without the viewer or listener knowing the skills, abilities and qualifications of the expert guiding them. There is no doubt that we do not support any objection to the right to freedom of thought; opinion is guaranteed to every human being, and we do not support imposing any censorship on the media or infringing on their independence. But it is necessary to take care in selecting the right guest, out of the media's responsibility towards society, since choosing guests without clear criteria harms the viewer and listener and brings no benefit.