Freedom of the press and the law

Freedom of the press is the guarantee that governments offer their people, and freedom of expression has become firmly established in Egypt and various Arab countries, especially after the Arab Spring revolutions that began in Tunisia on December 18, 2010, then in Egypt on January 25, 2011, followed by Libya on February 17, 2011, and then Yemen, Syria, and Bahrain. The people of these countries broke their long silence to speak out without fear of the authorities' oppression. In Egypt, this led to the trial and imprisonment of corrupt officials, starting with the president, his family members, and other high-ranking officials. This was publicized across all Egyptian media outlets¿print, broadcast, and online. This was unimaginable before the glorious January 25 Revolution, whose primary slogan was freedom. Freedom has been¿and remains¿the goal of humanity since the dawn of history, illuminating the path of humankind in its long and ongoing struggle for greater prosperity and progress. The media should ideally fulfill its mission freely and independently, and contribute to creating a free environment. For society to grow, progress, and change for the better, it is also assumed that journalists are independent and subject to no authority in the performance of their work except the law. A journalist's opinion or the accurate information they publish should not be grounds for harming them, nor should they be forced to disclose their sources. Journalists have the right to obtain information, figures, and news that is legally permissible to publish from various sources. Every journalist must know their rights and responsibilities to avoid violating the law that governs us all in this society. The long-awaited Freedom of Information Law, which journalists and media professionals have awaited, must be enacted. The Mubarak regime obstructed and delayed its passage, suppressing freedoms through the infamous Emergency Law that was in place for decades before January 25, 2011. Imprisonment for publishing offenses must be abolished, opinions must not be confiscated or censored, and all ideas, beliefs, trends, and religions must be accepted in society. Freedom gains value and prestige when it is linked to the media, given the prominent position the media, especially the press, holds as a means of expressing opinions. Contemporary society and the position it occupies in the democratic system, and the media is the way to know what is going on in society, and to be aware of the social values ¿¿that prevail within it. On the one hand, it reveals the widespread deficiency in society, highlights it, and confronts it in an attempt to treat it or reduce it.