After 30 years of emergency laws and the “Charter of Principles”, which was drafted by Arab information ministers in Cairo in 2008, the visceral need to scream and shout openly erupted on Tahrir Square in February 2011. Words everywhere, in every way, on the ground made with stones and sand, on banners, on walls, on trees.
This is a clear manifestation of a sudden liberation of words, a taste of freedom, embraced by the people, extending from the web and print to the streets. Those thousands of words reveal much more than just an anti-Mubarak opposition, but also the known humor of Egyptians, from the historical and cultural references to the sources of its information.
(Bénédicte Kurzen | Egypt Freedom of Speech, PRIVATE 53 – Hope, pages 76-81)
