Rafik Hariri Center Nonresident Senior Fellow H.A. Hellyer writes for Mada Masr on freedom of expression and independent journalism in Egypt:
“Walking around Mada’s celebration, I noted some of those battle scars. I saw no less than three companions who had been imprisoned – really, kidnapped is probably a much more accurate word – and then released. But there was no sorrow; there was only joy that they had been returned to us, and hopes that others would follow. We embraced friends who had been freed – some due to quiet pressure, others due to far louder tools of leverage. We were grateful for that.
In the midst of that joy, there’s also a particular type of resilience. We learn to see what works, what doesn’t work, and we learn how to apply our knowledge, while trying to keep up with the changes in the terrain. We learn to navigate, and sometimes we succeed. Sometimes we don’t, and that night, we missed a lot of people who we still haven’t figured out how to help.”