Students continue to push against government control and censorship in Egypt: All of Us have something to Say

The Revolt in Egypt was a Youth-led revolt. The youth are still moving. Check out this interview on DN yesterday--KAS

"It’s Time to Push the Borders of Freedom": Egyptian Students Defiantly Publish Newspaper Without Government Permission (FULL INTERVIEW)

http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2011/2/18/its_time_to_push_the_borders_of_freedom_egyptian_students_defiantly_publish_newspaper_without_government_permission_full_interview

Sanaa El Seif and Ziad Tareq are Egyptian students who are helping to publish a newspaper in defiance of laws requiring government permission. So far, the publication has focused on the voices of Tahrir Square.

Senior Producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous shows one of the first printed copies to Democracy Now!

Guests
Sanaa El Seif, Egyptian High School Student and protester
Ziad Tareq, Egyptian Student and Protester

AMY GOODMAN: If you could introduce this young woman, this Egyptian teenager and why you interviewed her, the significance of what is happening today.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, Amy, the youth here have been critical to this revolution. A lot of people called it the revolution of the youth. While they first took to the streets, but they were joined by all Egyptians eventually. And they are taking some of the boldest steps in this uprising, going forward. And what they have done is, what I am holding in my hand here is the first edition of a newspaper, that’s called "El Gornal," which means newspaper in Egyptian-Arabic, it just means journal, kind of our word for it. And they have printed it and are distributing it online. It’s basiclly voices of protesters and has a list of the martyrs in the back, the people killed in the revolution. But the reason they are printing it in addition to putting it online is intentionally to break Egyptian law which bars the printing and distributing of newspapers without permission. So is Sanaa Seif, she is a high school student and I spoke to her about this paper.

SANNA SEIF: My name is Sanaa and I am 17. I’m in my last high school year. We thought that right now is the perfect timing to push the borders of freedom further. So, we thought, why not lets make a newspaper and lets not get permission for that, let’s just sell it in the streets. Its a very symbolic thing, we are not counting on it, we don’t have a big budget, but we want to force this, we want to have the freedom of expression. We want to force it further.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: So usually you have to have permission to print and newspaper in Egypt?

SANNA SEIF: Yes. Thats the first time this will happen. So, we’ll see.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And what kind of paper is it? Describe it.

SANNA SEIF: Okay,—its called "Voices of Tahrir," which is "liberation." We thought that the first copy has to be like each one of us after the experience of the revolution, has having something to say. So we called everyone we know, we called people from Tahrir Square, Alexandria, people who have been there doing something in this revolution. And everybody wrote something. And—it is like a blog.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Sanaa Seif. And we are going to go back to her next week because we will be wrapping up our coverage with Sharif in Cairo next week when he comes back to our studio to bring this his final interviews there. Sanaa Seif who is involved in this new newspaper that came out this week, "El Gornal."