Egypt Sets Limits On News Items Not Involving Conspiracy Theories

Egypt’s government issued new guidelines for media outlets today, capping the number of articles not invoking anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Newspapers, websites, and other news and commentary media will all be subject to the limit.

The country’s Protocol Regulation and Order of Press Activity Guideline Auditing and News Dissemination Authority (PROPAGANDA) informed Egyptian media organizations this morning that as of 15 May, no more than four news items, opinion pieces, analyses, or other content per month will be allowed to remain conspiracy-theory-free.

The new guidelines specify the various types of conspiracy theories that must be invoked, mandating that no fewer than half of an organization’s monthly article output must make reference to the Holocaust as a Zionist or Jewish hoax, and must treat as factual every accusation of war crimes leveled against Israel’s armed forces.

The move formalizes an already widespread practice in Egyptian media, which regularly takes at face value a wide array of what most people in the West would dismiss as crackpot notions, such as Israeli complicity in, or outright engineering of, the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US.

Seasonal guidelines will also play a part, with the period leading up to the Jewish festival of Passover, for example, occasioning mention of the age-old blood libel alleging that Jews use the blood of non-Jews to bake their Passover matza.

For publications with a constant or daily release schedule, the requirements are especially strict, calling for at least one piece per day containing statements that the Talmud, an ancient collection of Jewish practices and lore, serves as a blueprint for either a Jewish takeover of the world or a repository of assertions to dehumanize and promote the persecution and exploitation of non-Jews.

Issuance of the current guidelines had been scheduled for January, but was delayed after an editor noticed that the implication of at least three theories specifically advocated by the guidelines included the notion that in fact the Jews were inhabitants of the Holy Land in ancient times, an assertion that runs afoul of several Arab League directives. After a series of PROPAGANDA board sessions to nail down how the Jews were responsible, the necessary modifications were made and the guidelines re-released.