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The Arab-European Association for Media and Communication Researchers

International Media Systems

Resilience, Responsibility, Resistance – Journalism in Exile_Script

Resilience, Responsibility, Resistance – Journalism in Exile (2024)

Created by Farah Jabareen, Mara Stöhr, Hishan Kishly & Emil Himstedt

Introducing our interview partner Hossam

Hossam: My name is Hossam El-Hamalawy. I am an Egyptian journalist and activist and I am currently based in Berlin. I arrived here in December 2017 after leaving Egypt in 2015 and I am an active member of the Egyptian Revolutionary Socialists.

Introducing our interview partner Ahmed

Ahmed: My name is Ahmed Abdelhalim, I’m 29 years old. I work as a writer and researcher in the field of socio-politics and body studies. I’ve been living in Beirut for about 9 years.

I arrived in Beirut in the late 2020-2021. I fled from imprisonment in Egypt again because I was afraid of being arrested by the security forces because of my research and journalistic writing, so I had to leave Egypt because I was afraid of being arrested again.

Definitions for a globally shared, yet individual experience

Narrator (Mara): Exile refers to permanent or long‐term removal from one’s native place, usually as a punishment imposed by government or other superior power; especially for political reasons. On the other hand there is an exile by choice. A measure, taken in order for someone to feel and talk more freely.

Reasons for Exile are various. Whether they are political, economical or even ecological.They are a direct consequence of conflict. With journalism being a powerful tool to shed a new light on the same conflicts from abroad. For many journalists in Exile, conflict resolution turns into a long term companion. Exile becomes agency.

Part 1 A universal experience?

Ahmed: It needs to be more specific in different cases, such as the Egyptian case, where there is no authority to issue a law that prohibits certain people or groups. But it forces these people, due to their intellectual and organizational affiliation, or even their professional work in journalism, documentation, and human rights, to get out of the country or face imprisonment.

Hossam: I think exile historically, since the start of civilization has always been one of the punishing tools that any society or any government had. But you add to that at this point that we’re living in, in modern society. There are additional issues. Issues related to xenophobia, for example. Issues related to racism.

Part 2 Alienation is what we feel

Hossam (Balcony Shot):  There isn’t a day that passes without me thinking about my flat, my bed, , my bed, about the smell of my own flat, the smell of the sheets of my bed, of my mother who lives on the same block, of my friends who used to pass by me.

Ahmed: The idea is always there, even if it doesn’t occur to me as a direct thought but it’s always there in my subconscious. Sometimes, this idea, gets stuck inside me, or appears in certain ideas, or certain practices, when you are exposed to certain situations: failure situations, social life, emotional life. So, sometimes, the feeling of exile increases more, the feeling of being lost increases more.

Hossam: So definitely there are times where I just feel I don’t belong to the place. But it’s mainly because how others, who share this space with me, make me feel about it.

Ahmed: On the level of living, whether the material level, or even the social level, I mean, I’m in a society that I’m still getting to know, so I face the challenges of integration, getting to know each other, and intermingling in the middle of groups. I’m not used to their cultures, and I’m not used to their customs.

Hossam: So to cut a long story short, it’s definitely alienation. That’s what I feel here.

Ahmed: Of course, there’s hope, because I’m going back to Egypt. But I’m not going back while I’m afraid. I’ve experienced prison for years. So, for me, they’re worse than the feeling of being lost and exiled. Sometimes I feel like I can’t compare them but both feelings are bad, but you can not compare them but reality forces you to do so because if you are not here, you will be there. So if you compare them, It’s better to be free and lost than being lost in prison.

Part 3 Different place, different focus

Hossam: Now that I’ve come to Germany, I can’t cover the protests or any acts of defiance face to face. But at the same time, Egypt is going through one of its worst phases after the military coup, where social dissent had been largely crushed. Independent media has been largely curbed. So even if I was in Egypt, I would have been either imprisoned or in a torture center or in my grave.

Ahmed: The work here is easier, and The work outside of Egypt is easier, in terms of the psychological pressure, Which is generated by the security pressure in Egypt, In Egypt you can’t do interviews with people, to write specific research, A research that requires interviews with former prisoners, with lawyers, with journalists, You’re afraid of being interrogated, You’re afraid to walk around with your phone in the street, You’re afraid to share an article that you’ve written, But here the pressure is less.

Part 4 From where we work, think and write

Ahmed: As for my role, I’ve been able to analyze, think, and write about the Egyptian regime’s prison practices, in a methodical, literary, and research way. I’ve talked about the bodies, and how they are formed, because of the effects of the regime’s practices inside the prisons.

Hossam: My role here has been a role more of an analyst who can reflect on what’s going on back home. Of a disseminator of information and content that my fellow activists back home cannot. Post or publish at this point. And at the same time I help manage and run technically some websites and some media platforms, that would pose a huge security risk for any administrator back home.

Ahmed: I mean, at the professional level, whether it’s journalism, legal work, or media work, I see that there is a positive side to those who work in this profession, whether outside of Egypt or in exile. I see that they work, and can do investigations, articles, research, books, and subjectively talk about Egypt, without bluffing for the regime. But I see that at the political level, the political work itself, outside of Egypt, is at a low level, or at a level that doesn’t seek change. On the contrary, at the professional level, it seeks change, it seeks to uncover facts, or it seeks to account for the reality, or the cause of the miserable reality that Egypt is going through.

Scene 8 Facts on Exile and Egypt for the bigger picture 

Narrator (Mara): Currently, Egypt is listed on rank 170 of 180 on the Freedom of Press Index.

According to ‘Reporters without Borders’, Egypt still remains one of the biggest jailers of journalists in 2024 – with only recent imprisonment of more than 100 people protesting in solidarity with the palestinian liberation since October 7th.

While the European Union fears the collapse of Sisi’s regime, many journalists in Exile fear the exact opposite.

Of more than 11 million Egyptians living abroad, many continue to organize, document and criticize the regime from their position in Exile.

Keeping the hope for a freer Egypt and free journalism alive.

Hossam: In the future, Exile Journalism will definitely help in the resolution of conflicts back in our homelands at some point. It’s not some silver bullet that can finish off the problem, but it would be one of the factors and one of the tools in order to resolve these conflicts.

Ahmed: I have hope that the fear, and the climate of fear and defeat in Egypt, will end, or at least be less than the current levels. I don’t think this will happen in the near future, maybe in the distant future, and if this fear ends, or became less, to a point where we can live and practice our daily lives without any pressure.

At that point, of course, for me, going back to Egypt is a welcome thing and something I’m looking forward to.

 

Sources:
08:25:07-10:02:17 Facts on Egypt

 

02:59:16 – 03:14:20 Hossam remembering (chronologically):

 

06:35:15 – 06:52:13 Hossam Media Work

  • Video 1: Screenrecording of Youtube
  • VIdeo 3: Screenrecording of Flickr

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