More Fallout from Eissa Firing

The firing of Ibrahim Eissa yesterday is being described as "The Death of Egypt's Free Press" and widely interpreted as a heavy-handed use of pressure by the government to clear away major opposition voices before the elections. The assumption is that Wafd Party leader Sayyid Badawi was acting at the instigation of the regime, presumably in exchange for more seats for the Wafd in the elections. True or not, a lot of people seem to believe it. Eissa of course has been speaking out (see the Al Jazeera clip I posted at the earlier post, and the Foreign Policy link above).

Meanwhile, at least as of right now (Wednesday evening), Al-Dostour's website (Arabic) is still controlled by Eissa loyalists, who are printing the articles and other news suppressed by the firing. I'm not sure how long that will last, but it's interesting that it's lasted more than a day.

Also, see Issandr's latest column.