The Hill News

Constitutional law, an unfettered judiciary, civil rights and unions are all unfamiliar concepts to Arabs. And a free press, the platform to create real reform, has not been allowed to survive in the Arab world.

Yet if there is a clear lesson to take from the protests that toppled the Egyptian government on Friday, as well as the Tunisian government in January, it is that media outlets can play a powerful role in advancing the rights of individuals, and that repressive Arab governments will go to great lengths to halt progress.

In Egypt, the government shut down social networking and media websites that allowed protesters to organize. This was followed by a nationwide shutdown of Internet and mobile phone networks. Governments know how powerful the media can be, and will go to great lengths to keep that power in the hands of the ruling elite. 

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