CAIRO — The Egyptian House of Representatives approved a press and media bill June 10 and sent it to the State Council for review. The bill contains three separate draft laws to regulate the Supreme Council for the Press and the Media (SCPM), the National Press Authority (NPA) and the National Media Authority.

However, parliament members, journalists and others have denounced the draft laws on the grounds that they grant wide powers to the government’s SCPM and NPA and allow the blocking of personal accounts on social networking sites. On June 12, members of the parliament’s 25-30 Alliance denounced Egypt’s media and press regulations and said that Articles 5, 10, 19 and 29 of the SCPM draft law contain vague language that could be interpreted in a way that violates both freedom of the press and the constitution.

On June 11, four council members of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate issued a statement declaring their rejection of the draft laws. They said that the bills are a reflection of the will of some parties to control the national and private press. According to Articles 15 and 35 of the NPA draft law, the authority would directly manage Egypt’s press institutions and control the boards of directors and public assemblies of national newspapers, thus preventing institutions such as Al-Ahram and Al-Gomhuria from making any important decisions without the NPA’s preapproval.

The syndicate members said that Articles 4 and 5 of the SCPM draft law subvert press freedoms through vague wording concerning the distribution of hatred, incitement, threat to democracy and pornographic material, among other violations. Article 19 gives the SCPM the right to monitor and block personal social networking accounts that have more than 5,000 followers.