{"id":15475,"date":"2018-07-03T00:47:37","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T22:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/afteegypt.org\/%d8%aa%d8%ad%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b6%d9%88%d8%a1\/2018\/07\/03\/15475-afteegypt.html"},"modified":"2018-07-05T23:19:21","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T21:19:21","slug":"karma-have-security-bodies-become-the-ultimate-censor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afteegypt.org\/en\/advocacy-en\/position-papers-en\/2018\/07\/03\/15475-afteegypt.html","title":{"rendered":"\u201cKarma\u201d.. Have security bodies become the ultimate censor?!"},"content":{"rendered":"
Prepared by<\/b><\/p>\n
Mahmoud Othman, AFTE lawyer<\/b><\/p>\n
Edited by<\/b><\/p>\n
Mohamed Abdel Salam, Director, AFTE research unit<\/b><\/p>\n
Introduction<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n For the second time in the career of director Khaled Youssef, security authorities intervene to ban a film of his making, but this time – with respect to the movie \u201cKarma\u201d, Yusuf avoided resorting to justice, preferring to communicate with security authorities. This paper attempts to monitor and analyze the role of security authorities during the past two decades, in terms of their interference in the public show of creative works, specifically cinematic works.<\/span><\/p>\n The interference of security authorities in the film industry extends back to the 1930s, when censorship exposed its ugly face by banning the film “Lachin” in 1938. The ban came upon an order by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior, who believed that the movie touches upon the sovereign and the mode of governance<\/span>. This marked the beginning of the ministry\u2019s incursion as a censor, although the film was later allowed to show upon an intervention by Talaat Harb. The <\/span>Wadi El Nil<\/span><\/i> newspaper had published on September 2, 1916 that:<\/span><\/p>\n “The Security Directorate began implementing the resolution regarding the control of motion pictures in cinemas, and everything that is now shown is with the approval of the Security Directorate so that it can be considered from now on responsible for the content of the stories presented to the public”<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n The security authorities’ interventions did not stop for decades, up to the \u201cKarma\u201d film crisis, whose makers was planning to show it in <\/span>Eid al-Fitr<\/span><\/i>, before being told that security authorities were of a different opinion.<\/span><\/p>\n An unknown entity orders the ban of \u201cKarma\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n After obtaining all the necessary licenses and permits, and one day before its private show, a Facebook post, dated Monday, 11 June 2018, quoting \u00a0the censorship authority on works of art, reported the <\/span>withdrawal of the license<\/span><\/a> for the movie \u201cKarma\u201d directed by Khaled Yucef and produced by the Arab Egyptian Company for Cinematic production. This happened after the filmmakers had obtained a package of permits and licenses starting with their unions, a release for the script, filming and a show permit for 10 years starting from the date of its grant, issued on 30 April 2018, in accordance with Article 11 of the Executive Regulations of Law No. 430 of the year 1955 on the control of works of art, issued by the Council of Ministers Resolution No. 162 of 1993.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Central Administration for the censorship of Works of Art shall have the right to withdraw the license for public show, in accordance with Article 9 of the law of censorship of works of art, which states:<\/span><\/p>\n “The supervisory authority may withdraw, giving reasons, a previously granted permit, at any time should new circumstances; it can grant a re-licensing of the work after the required deletions, additions or amendments have been made without extra fees.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n The law used vague wording, such as \u201cnew circumstances\u201d without specifying them, to withdraw the issued license. Nevertheless, the censorship authority did not take into account the minimum legal requirements, which is specifying the reasons for the administrative decision, in accordance with article 9. The authority issued its decision without detailed reasons. In this regard, earlier decisions by the Administrative Court which ruled against rejection letters issued by the censorship authority since they did not include the reasons for the rejection and obliged the administration to give detailed reasons for its decision, including the parts of the movie where the administration believes the film makers had gone beyond the limits of their license.<\/span><\/p>\n There are many decisions issued by the administrative court which stipulate that the original principle is freedom of creativity, which can only be curtailed for serous reasons; the administration has the right to advise the artist to modify the script before rejecting it, and when granted the permit, the artist then enjoys a stable legal status which cannot be disputed in such a way as to have financial and legal consequences; the withdrawal of the permit therefore harms the artist and other stakeholders.<\/span><\/p>\n Thus, the censorship decision to withdraw the license for \u201cKarma\u201d was devoid of reasons. On the other hand, the filmmakers could not obtain information about the motives of the censorship to make this decision, to the extent that Amr Saad, the main character in the movie, explained that he <\/span>met<\/span><\/a> with the Minister of Culture, who in turn did not explain any reason for the withdrawal of license for the film.<\/span><\/p>\n Later, Youssef published a <\/span>video<\/span><\/a> on his official Facebook page on Tuesday, 12 June 2018 – the day following the publication of the censorship decision to withdraw the license – confirming that the film will be shown. Youssef, who is the director and writer of the film, then in <\/span>statements<\/span><\/a> to the press announced the details of his phone conversation with the head of censorship authority to ask about the reasons for the withdrawal of the license. The latter’s response was \u201ca violation of the terms public show\u201d. \u00a0But then the head of the authority eventually admitted that they were given orders. He said, \u201cI don\u2019t know, but those were the orders.\u201d Youssef explained that sovereign authorities had reviewed the content of the film with him and agreed to it. The situation became more obscure when Youssef evaded answering questions regarding the authority behind the withdrawal of the license, insisting that the reason was someone in an unknown authority who had issued a decision to ban the film.<\/span><\/p>\n Films suffering \u201csovereign\u201d ban<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n