31
Children on the eyes of the Egyptian press “Joy of the future and happiness of the present” (Jan - June 2003)
Land Center for Human Rights issues its report no. 31 of social and economic rights series that monitors about 392 press articles published in 26 Egyptian newspapers (governmental, national, opposite and independent) throughout the period from the first of Jan to the end of June 2003. We divided the report into main parts, each one reviews one of the serious problems of children. We think that each part is in need to more inclusive research to cover all factors.
The initiative part reviews the role of the press in the community in addition to its historical development in Egypt since the French occupation till now. It highlights the restrictions applied over the right to issue a paper in addition to the violations that the journalists face that may reach to imprisonment. The report reviews some articles of penalties law that hinder press freedom.
The firs part mentions to the press concern with children cases through classifying the papers according to the number of articles issued around children cases. The result of this classification was el Wafed newspaper (99 articles - 25.3%), Al-Ahram (95 articles - 24.3%), Al-Ahrar (70 articles - 17.9%), el Haqika (12 articles - 3.06%), Al-Siasey Al-Misery (9 articles - 2.3%), el Tagamoo (8 articles - 2.04%), Al-Nabaa (9 articles - 2.3%) and Al-Usboe (8 articles - 2.04%).
The second part reviews the press concern with cases of street children. It mentions that only 13 newspapers (50% of the sample) issued articles about street children. For example, Al-Ahram published 13 articles (6 of them around the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood - 1 on the strategies of the Minister of health - 1 on the phenomenon), Al-Ahrar issued 4 articles around the gangs that abuse children in addition to 2 articles about symposium and workshop organized around children problems. El Haqika published two articles attacking street children and the organizations that adopt their cases. Al-Ahaley published only on reasonable article on street children.
The third part reviews how the press dealt with violence cases of children either child is the felon or the victim. It mentions that only 10 papers published articles around violence cases of children as follows; Al-Ahram (13 articles), el Wafed (11 articles), Al-Ahrara (10 articles) and Al-Usboe (3 articles). The defect of these articles is that it reviews the case with no comment.
The fourth part monitors the papers’ concern with the case of children education. Only 9 papers published articles around this case. These articles reviewed violence news inside schools in addition to the declaration of officials. The most important paper that published articles around this case were el Wafed while the less concerned paper were Al-Ahaley, May, el Khamies and Al-Siasey.
The fifth part monitors the papers’ interest with cases of sexual (and other forms) abuse of children. Only 45 articles of 392 articles monitored by the report were about this case. These articles reviewed only three forms of abuse (robbery, sexually and beggary). The report mentions that 10 papers only were concerned with this case.
The sixth part monitors the case of child labour published by the press. The report mentions that in spite of the huge number of child labourers in Egypt, the press paid unsuitable concern that only 24 articles of 392 ones reviews the problem of child labour. The most concerned paper was Al-Ahram while the less concerned was Al-Usboe.
The seventh part monitors the papers’ concern with cases of rural children. The report mentions that only 15 papers published 80 articles about this topic. 60 of these articles were about accidents and crimes comprising no comments. The most concerned article was Al-Ahram while the less concerned was el Wataney. On the other hand, there were many papers that paid no concern with the case as el Haqika.
The eighth part monitors the papers’ articles around officials’ declaration about childhood cases. The report reviews that these declarations were published as propaganda with no examination or following up for the results and implementation of thee declarations. Al-Ahram published about 30 articles on the officials’ declarations of 95 articles published about children cases.
The cases of children discussed by the report may be classified as follows:
1. Increasing of vagrant children: the number of this category reached one million children, who live on beggary, robbery and prostitution. Those children suffer from horrible treatment of shop owners and policemen.
2. Deterioration of work conditions of children: the phenomenon of child labour is very serious problem that comprises 5 million children varied between seasonal and permanent labourers. This phenomenon is widespread in all economic sectors [industry, agriculture, services, etc]. Although the legalization determines the age of child labour with 14 years old, the report asserts that the real child labour begins with 6 to 14 years. The report emphasizes that the bad economic conditions of the family is the main reason for child labour. The problems of child labour are represented in hard work conditions, low wages and non-existence of bonds or syndicates.
3. Maltreatment: in low-educated families, the father and the mother are used to maltreat their kids as a reaction for their ignorance and poverty. The child is the weak target for violence committed by the family members, relatives, business owners, teachers and policemen.
4. Deprivation from education: according to the increase of tuitions and the decrease of the income of the poor families, parents are obliged to release their kids from education in order to work for survival. In the governmental schools that are available for the poor, students are accumulated in classes that hinder their learning.
5. Sexual abuse: most vulgar children suffer from sexual abuse committed by relatives or strangers. This phenomenon is increased because of the hard economic conditions that delay marriage age. Vulgar children sometimes agree about prostitution for their food and place to sleep.
6. Road accidents: not only children face road accidents but also the adults suffer from. According to the bad regulation of the traffic, the governmental negligence to maintain and renew means of transportation, such accidents are increased.
The report presented some results:
- The independent papers were more concerned with publishing articles on children problems through reviewing, analysing and investigating as el Tagamoo and Al-Ahrar.
- Most of the governmental papers reviewed children cases superficially that it was concerned with praising the officials.
- The complaints of children families were directed to the opposite papers no the governmental ones.
- The opinion articles around children cases were very rare that is an indication for the less concern of journalists and writers in addition to the democracy conditions in Egypt.
- There was a gap between newspapers and centers of social and legal research that the reports issued by these centers were usually uncovered.
- The press reviewed throughout the covered period the issuance of new strategies presented by the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, Ministry of Health, Egyptian Federation for Trade Unions, Ministry of education, etc.
- Issuance of huge number of plans and strategies with no practical implementation.
According to the topic of the report (the press), we presented our recommendation for supporting this sector not for solving the report’s problems. We call for removing all obstacles and restrictions that hinder free-expression and free-association. It is very important to delete the monitoring applied over publications and expression. Then, we will find who express the problems of our children in order to build more humanistic and just future. LCHR calls all national forces to work together to guarantee adequate humanistic life for all citizens.