In the past few weeks, Egypt has intervened with the public media, putting halt to state institutions being undermined by the public. An article in Ahram online entitled “Egypt chief editors pledge support for state institutions” describes this current issue. In the article it talks about how the government has even used military force to stop journalists from writing against the state have and murdered several journalists in doing so. From this article it seems as if Sisi is taking a more political realist approach in trying to keep the state strong, using military force to keep this in order. In the article is talks about how although the government wants this idea of free speech, but doesn’t want anyone insulting or undermining state institutions and the military. A contradictory statement, but showcases how the government in Egypt want this idea of a strong state. The article brought in ideas about how this approach is not the best and how there is a need for a more stable government involving multiple parties and perspectives, a more political liberal approach. It’s intriguing to see how the two perspectives differ and how one is evaluating another on such a broad topic of free speech. I would have thought that both perspectives would want this idea of free speech, but I now see how one perspective might not think it is a true value in forming a strong state. The image above is another cartoon in reaction to the current media censorship in Egypt. The cartoon from Oum Cartoon is by Ahmed Okasha, a Cairo based cartoonist. The cartoon is going against this idea of using a political realist approach of using military force and this idea of a strong state through repression of peoples’ freedoms. Instead it appears that the Okasha is trying to portray how it approach is not working and instead there are other ways to build a strong state, ones that include all-states and true expressions of speech. From this image, I have become more aware of how artists bring in cultural ideas through an image and how even through a cartoon, you can see what the artists perspective is on current issues. I also find it interesting how a lot of the reactions to censorship in Egypt is of images mainly of TV anchors or objects related to television instead of criticizing newspapers or cartoons instead.