The former Egyptian state TV anchor says restrictions now imposed by the military are worse than those under Mubarak.
Corruption and censorship are worse today than under Mubarak." So says Shahira Amin, who quit Egyptian state TV on 3 February at the height of the political unrest and mass protests in the Middle East. At the time of her resignation, there was optimism in Egypt and the west that the country's corrupt and censored media would be reformed.
Following demonstrations from media workers and a shift in news coverage after the revolution – protesters were transformed from "thugs" to "heroes" – it seemed that the country's state media were becoming more open. Amin, however, believes they have gone backwards. "The army is in complete control. They have simply replaced Mubarak and they are even more intimidating.
"Every news item gets checked before it is broadcast, which wasn't the case before, they just had a monitoring system. Media channels still get press releases. Before they were from the presidency and interior ministry, now they're from the SCAF [supreme council of armed forces]. Threats and rumours have been spread to discredit me, which scares a lot of other journalists."
But this hasn't scared Amin, also a CNN correspondent, who says she will not let anything get in the way of telling the truth of what is happening in her country. The tipping point for her resignation as deputy director and senior anchor at the state-controlled Nile TV came "when men raided Tahrir Square, which was full of protesters, on camel back".
"They gave me the news to read which didn't even mention it," she recalls. "I asked them, 'Why isn't it in the bulletin?' I read the news but I was so furious and stormed out of the studio. The next day I never went back."
Amin says it was only during the revolution that she felt she was sacrificing her credibility as a journalist by continuing to work for state TV. She would often discuss anti-government views on her talkshow when the Mubarak regime was still intact, much to the consternation of many of her colleagues, who weren't as willing to put their jobs at risk by not treading the party line.
Free Egypt Today, Amin has one of the most influential roles in Egypt's media. With the help of Hillary Clinton, she was able in May to go back to Nile TV – but on her own terms. She now hosts a weekly interview programme called In the Hot Seat, broadcast to the whole of the Arab world, in which she quizzes high-profile figures. She refused to go back to reading the news.
"If it wasn't for Hillary Clinton, I would have been forgotten," she says. "She approached me about the show, which I then spoke to Nile TV about. My boss said she didn't want me back … I tried to talk to my colleagues but they don't speak to me any more. But in the end, I said 'This is free Egypt … I'll stay and whoever doesn't like it can leave.'"
Her first interview on the new show was with Clinton. She has also interviewed the UN high commissioner for refugees, António Guterres, on the immigrants stranded at the Libyan-Egyptian border, and Michelle Bachelet, the former Chilean president, among others.
Despite Amin's unique position, she still faces some obstacles. She is fully responsible for her content, but says she has to be wary of the fact that any reporting concerning the military or its leadership must receive prior approval from the morale affairs and intelligence directorates.
Mubarak is gone, but the expensive media network he created and used as his propaganda machine for 30 years still exists. In an ideal world Amin would like to see the entire media system dismantled then pieced back together, but the reality is that while the old channels are still running, corruption continues to exist. "Under the old regime, I was threatened many times by state security," she claims. "My email was monitored, my phone was tapped … Even if I was outside the country, I was trailed the whole time. They told me they could make me disappear off the face of the earth."
You wouldn't guess, from Amin's calm demeanour and light-hearted tone, that she has experienced a life under such surveillance – "I used to always have someone standing outside my house to report every time I walk through the door, an informant," she recalls.
Currently based in Cairo with her partner and daughter, she has lived in many places abroad including the UK, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Abu Dhabi, where she began her career as a radio DJ. She also has a son who lives away and admits the only time she really worries is for the safety of her family.
The threats often followed her freelance reports, broadcast internationally on CNN, which revealed harsh truths about Egypt, tackling themes such as female genital mutilation, early marriages and Sudanese refugees.
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