ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the Tahrir Revolution, as a critical incident for Egyptian journalism, triggered ongoing renegotiation processes rather than an immediate change in journalism. Viewing the Tahrir Revolution as a process allows for the reconstruction of critical incident episodes as peaks in journalists’ contestations for professional autonomy. In the disruptive power episode, the Tahrir Revolution, had such ferocity that it suspended the political-legal authoritarianism. The Tahrir Revolution revealed nuanced elements of journalistic agency. However, in the erratic struggle episode, the Syndicate’s mobilization to redefine who can be a journalist shattered against the walls of political indifference to journalists’ maximalist demands. The trapped endurance episode shows the divided reactions within the community: support for Egyptian journalists was limited to the Syndicate’s representatives, whose formal function is to protect media freedom. The critical incident episodes of disruptive power, erratic struggle, and trapped endurance demonstrate that journalists are engaged in an unresolved struggle to renegotiate occupational and organizational professionalism.
