{"id":498,"date":"2018-07-15T15:15:08","date_gmt":"2018-07-15T15:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info?p=498"},"modified":"2018-07-15T15:15:08","modified_gmt":"2018-07-15T15:15:08","slug":"after-burning-books-banning-al-fan-midan-festivals-and-shutting-down-public-libraries-the-decision-to-ban-concerts-or-festivals-except-after-a-government-approval-legalizes-repres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/?p=498&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"After burning books, banning \u201cAl-Fan Midan\u201d festivals, and shutting down public libraries, the decision to ban concerts or festivals except after a government approval legalizes repression in Egypt"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Culture Minister’s decision to ban holding any <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>concerts<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span> or festival<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>s<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/b>without obtaining <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>a license is a systematic assault on artistic creativity freedom and a comprehensive stifling of independent art groups<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said, today, that the state has to put an end to the policies and police practices that curtail freedom of artistic and cultural expression and creativity. It ought to rescind<\/span><\/span><\/span> the Prime Minister<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u2019s decision<\/span><\/span><\/span> to ban organizing any concert<\/span><\/span><\/span>s<\/span><\/span><\/span> or festival<\/span><\/span><\/span>s<\/span><\/span><\/span> except after obtaining a license from the Ministry of Culture alongside a committee of eight other ministries, including the Ministry of Interior.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Prime Minister’s decision No. 1238 of 2018 entails the establishment of a permanent committee mandated with regulating the organization of festivals and concerts. Headed by the Minister of Culture, the committee includes representatives from eight other ministries: (Civil Aviation, Tourism, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Interior, Local Development, Antiquities, and Youth and Sports). The committee is tasked with reviewing requests to hold any <\/span><\/span><\/span>concerts<\/span><\/span><\/span> or festival<\/span><\/span><\/span>s<\/span><\/span><\/span> and following up on its execution, as well as determining its place and date, while taking into account that any event- under one field- won’t be repeated<\/span><\/span><\/span> in the same province. The committee also guarantees that the body organizing the event is established in accordance with the Egyptian laws and carries a license to practice its activities, or that it constitutes a civil society that plays a role in serving the community. And in case it is a “company”, its capital should be at least EGP 500,000 and have an Egyptian owner with 51% or more of its shares. Also, it is required that the license includes: the event’s organizing body name, the event’s venue, its activities, and objectives. Then <\/span><\/span><\/span>last but not least, <\/span><\/span><\/span>came the most absurd and unreasonable condition; the request has to include also information about the guests invited to the event, whether they are Egyptians or foreigners. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

ANHRI said: “After we witnessed the burning of books at the hands of some officials from the Ministry of Education, the banning of one of the most successful Egyptian festivals -“Al-Fan Midan” (Art is a Square)- and thereafter the closure of “Al-Karama” public libraries in some popular neighborhoods, it is now the turn of the concerts and festivals to be banned except after a police governmental approval. Such a move contravenes Article 67 of the Egyptian Constitution, which obligates the state to promote arts and literature, sponsor creators and protect their creations. Such autocratic decision <\/span><\/span><\/span>exceeds<\/span><\/span><\/span> “Big Brother” <\/span><\/span><\/span>level <\/span><\/span><\/span>and <\/span><\/span><\/span>takes<\/span><\/span><\/span> Egypt <\/span><\/span><\/span>to <\/span><\/span><\/span>the “Big Censor” <\/span><\/span><\/span>level<\/span><\/span><\/span>. This<\/span><\/span><\/span> erroneous decree has to be revoked. Culture, art and creativity shouldn’t be subject to any kind of police intervention.” <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

ANHRI calls on the Prime Minister to rescind such <\/span><\/span><\/span>an erroneous<\/span><\/span><\/span> resolution, and demands from those who cares about culture, art and creativity to reject it and legally confront all forms of administrative and police intervention in all aspects of life, especially art and culture. It also calls for adhering to the provisions of the Egyptian Constitution and international conventions that guarantee freedom of thought, opinion and expression, <\/span><\/span><\/span>especially <\/span><\/span><\/span>freedom of artistic creativity, and the <\/span><\/span><\/span>need for <\/span><\/span><\/span>the promotion of arts and literature, as well as taking care of creative <\/span><\/span><\/span>individuals<\/span><\/span><\/span>, protect<\/span><\/span><\/span>ing<\/span><\/span><\/span> their art and encourag<\/span><\/span><\/span>ing<\/span><\/span><\/span> them<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Culture Minister’s decision to ban holding any concerts or festivals without obtaining a license is a systematic assault on artistic creativity freedom and a comprehensive stifling of independent art groups The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said, today, that the state has to put an end to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"labor":[],"years":[],"class_list":["post-498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-statements"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":499,"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions\/499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=498"},{"taxonomy":"labor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Flabor&post=498"},{"taxonomy":"years","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anhri.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fyears&post=498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}