With the new amendments, the government repealed some of the more contentious articles of Law 93, including a provision granting authorities the right to detain journalists without charge. Cases involving libel of the president can still land journalists in preventive detention. For the most part, however, the essence of Law 93 remains intact, and journalists continue to face imprisonment and heavy fines for their writing. In effect, the government's revisions merely lessen the severity of penalties. In cases where journalists face accusations of libeling public officials, offenders may receive up to two years in prison.
Egyptian authorities continue to use such rubrics to prosecute journalists.
For example, Mustafa Bakri, the former editor in chief of the Liberal Party organ, Al-Ahrar, was charged along with his brother Mahmoud with defamation in a suit brought by former Minister of Religious Endowments Muhammad Mahgoub. When not prosecuting journalists for their writing, authorities were active in censoring a variety of local publications. Ministry of Information officials continued their harassment of the English-language weekly Middle East Times. In October, the ministry banned one of the paper's editions because of an article that commented on President Hosni Mubarak's 15 years in power, and censors forced the paper's editors to remove or alter individual articles on at least eight occasions. Another favorite target of government censors was the Arabic weekly Al-Dustour.