Déjà vu for Egypt’s ‘pioneering’ journalist, ‘reckless’ democrat?
Egypt’s transition may ultimately be good for democracy, but it’s been a major headache for a leading democrat:
A little over a year ago, on the eve of the revolution that ousted Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak, Hisham Kassem was poised to launch the Arab world’s first independently owned multimedia news company. But the revolution failed to redeem its promise of full democracy, press freedoms deteriorated, the economy tanked, and Kassem’s shareholders abandoned him.
“Investors started missing payments in June,” Kassem says from his half-finished offices in downtown Cairo. “By late August I was cash-strapped.”
As editor of the independent Al Masry Al Youm ... (...)
