Press Liberalization, the New Media, and the ‘Coptic Question’: Muslim–Coptic Relations in Egypt in a Changing Media Landscape

Abstract

The introduction of new media (internet, satellite TV) in the 1990s and the liberalization of the Egyptian press in the 2000s have brought the Coptic minority and its demands for equality and recognition to the forefront of public debate in Egypt. The consequences are diverse: more and sometimes better information and more room for the discussion of uncomfortable truths on the one hand, irresponsible sensationalism, the propagation of new and old prejudice, and a further strengthening of exclusive religious identities on the other hand. Government policies, though, rightly criticized as contributing to the current crisis in Muslim–Christian relations, have so far remained unaffected.