Mada Masr, Striving for Independent and Progressive Journalism

When a group of young journalists decide not to give up

By: Salma Hegab

Amid the constant changing in the political and economic scene, challenges stand in front of the media in a country that has a track record of state and self-censorship. one of the attempts to defy the turmoil in the Egyptian media is Mada Masr, a novel outlet founded by Egypt Indepedent (EI) journalists.

Being proud of the kind of journalism they had in EI, Mada Masr aimed to have the proper context as well as providing engaged and implicated journalism.

According to their welcome note on the website, the name “Mada” was chosen from Arabic to reflect their practice of independent progressive journalism as well as the artistic side. “It is the Arabic word for range, scope or span, but it’s also the spot where a stone is placed on a ring, a symbol of taking a position.” Through collective ownership, a group of young enthusiastic journalists started Mada Masr rebuilding a home for their own unique form of journalism. They aim to find more creative angles and further insights to suit the foreign readers.

In a small flat on the main street of Garden City, I went to see Mada Masr office and get a sense of their “Progressive Journalism.” At the entrance of the office, I sat on a bluish modern couch, contemplating the beautiful painting in blue with the phrase “This sea is mine.”

“After being informed that EI is closing we had different plans,” Journalist Omar Halawa said. “The last resort was to start our own thing.” Halawa mentioned how the team of 27 journalists divided tasks among themselves in addition to the average editorial process.

“We started working on 30 June. It was a very strong start, we were in the streets in various governorates, then we started working on our projects.”

Journalists who started Mada Masr feel they have more privileges being the owners of their own project. “There’s no pressure for me here. I have more freedom to write what I want not having concerns about a certain businessman that might not want to have his ad in our newspaper if I wrote about him, ” added Halawa.

He aims to make the best use out of the freedom Mada Masr have to improve and be a better reporter.

Journalist and blogger Sarah Carr did not hesitate after Egypt Independent was forced to close. “I wanted this project to succeed and to prove that we could do it. I wanted to work in local journalism not as a freelance. For me this is the best team to work with. There’s a flexibility here to work as a reporter, in multimedia or as a blogger.”

An opinion piece in Mada Masr by Carr was well received for its sharp criticism of the media’s dehumanizing coverage according to different media outlets’ owners views. Her argument in “On Sheep and Infidels” highlighted the disparities in the Egyptian society over politics and how biased media coverage deepens the gap.

For Egyptian media, this has been a hard year. State Media which has always been directed, has switched from backing Mohamed Morsi to backing the military and its crackdown on the Brotherhood, including shutting down four Islamist TV stations. Not just State media, but Independent TV stations and newspapers owned by wealthy opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood, have forced their stakeholders’ agenda setting on the media scene. While being very critical during Morsi’s one year rule filled with police violations, hate speech from some Islamists against the Mionrities and  manipulation of power, they have been uncritical of acts by the military.

On 16 April 2013, the editorial team of Egypt Independent, a leading local Enghlish-language newsprint knew the publication was being shut down. Al-Masry Media Corporation, the publisher of Egypt Independent and Arabic newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm cited financial troubles as the reason behind closing EI.

“We leave you with the hope of coming back soon, stronger and unbeaten, ready to incessantly travel to uncharted territories of storytelling.”

Amid the constant changing in the political and economic scene, and the challenges of the media in a country that has a track record of state and self-censorship, Egypt Independent staff found themselves forced to stop reporting the truth.

Lina Atallah, editor-in-chief of Mada Masr, said the media has subscribed to the binary of the prevalent polarization since Summer.

“We do the very basic thing of reporting the truth. We do not take side and this has become a scarce position for the media in Egypt,” Attalah said. When Attalah decided to go ahead with their own media outlet, one of the main challenges was to put together a media institution that is progressive, collective in the way it functions.

“Our [Progressive] journalism depends on analyzing, instead of taking it from the face values. We’re interested in creating a platform for pushing the boundaries of analysis,” said Attallah.

Journalists in Mada Masr works on the editorial side with the normal hierarchy whereas Attalah describes “Everyone is heard and respected,” while on the institutional level, journalists contribute in the administrative process as well where “Every journalist is also a strategist or a housekeeper or a sustainability officer.”

One of the main challenges of Mada is to keep the website self-sustainable without  compromising the independence of its journalism.

“We were not interested in having an anchor investor. We were interested in more smaller investments. Currently We get funding support from non-profit organization,” Attalah explained.

Sustainability officer for Mada Masr Alexandre Goudineau said his main job is to develop a business plan to generate revenues. “The online advertising revenues online are pretty low nowadays,” Goudineau said. “What is already a challenge for media worldwide is a bigger challenge for us in Egypt.” Goudineau mentioned that depending on ads can cover just up to 60-70% of Mada Masr costs, but their plan hopes to achieve the self-sustainability by the third year.

He used to work as a reporter in the economy section at EI before he had to switch his job field, yet Goudineau feels satisfied for working in Mada Masr. “Being part of a project that started with such talented journalists, at this historic time in Egypt is something unique that won’t happen twice in life.”

Photo by Salma Hegab