Media Studies grad reports from Cairo

Jessica Gray lives a life of deadlines.

The 2006 Media Studies grad reports from Cairo. The Egyptian capital is where one of the bigger chapters in the social and political revolutions that started with the Arab Spring early this year is still unfolding.

In other words, Gray has been covering one of 2011’s biggest stories from the middle of the fray. She files video reports for Reuters and Hamilton TV station CHCH.

“I never expected to be at the heart of a revolution when I landed in Cairo more than three years ago,” she said in an email from Egypt.

Several years ago, as a student at John Fraser Secondary in Mississauga, Gray hadn’t planned on becoming a journalist, or a foreign correspondent at that.

In fact, she didn’t know what she wanted to do, where she wanted to go, as the end of high school, when an important deadline approached.

“Just weeks before university applications were due I attended a seminar by Gwynne Dyer,” wrote Gray.

Dyer, a well-travelled Canadian journalist, columnist and author, ultimately inspired Gray’s career choice.

“He wore a beat-up leather jacket and was not afraid to speak candidly about the mistakes Canadian and American journalists were making in the wake of 9/11.”

Gray asked the veteran reporter exactly what journalists had been doing wrong. Dyer replied they’d lost sight of core principles of their profession, namely “to question authority and try to offset bias,” recalled Gray.

In Cairo, reporters have come up against authority and bias.

“Our concern right now is that the military is still working to censor news outlets and online bloggers,” said Gray, adding a new English-language weekly had been shut down.

The military maintains power in Egypt, though elections, and related clashes, have taken place. The original protests occurred in January and February of 2011 and eventually led to the end of Hosni Mubarak’s 30-plus-year rule.

Protesters have used social media effectively to gather and organize, as has been widely reported.

“The biggest part it plays, however, is during and after events when people post video, commentary, art or blog about the events,” said Gray.

Doctors to lawyers, citizens to politicians: many have joined the debate.

Social media helps Gray, for example, track election polling stations.

But that can’t replace witnessing the story directly. Gray lives roughly 10 minutes from Tahrir Square, centre stage for Egypt’s part in the Arab uprising, or awakening, as this year’s events in multiple countries, including Tunisia, Bahrain and Yemen, are also known. (Gray filed the following video on the latest clashes in Bahrain to  Reuters earlier this week, on December 18.)

One of Gray’s most memorable moments happened when she and her cameraman were on their way to Tahrir Square, when the 5pm curfew was approaching: “We got stopped at a checkpoint run by men from the neighbourhood.”

The men, who carried knives and other makeshift weapons, warned them to leave or risk “getting into trouble.” They left by taxi, only to be stopped at another checkpoint, where a mob gathered around the vehicle. An officer, whether local police or military Gray wasn’t sure, took their camera and passports. He questioned them in their cab and then directed the driver to drive.

The officer took Gray’s number and insisted she take his in case she ever got into trouble. “His name was Tarek,” said Gray. “While many of the security officers and police were guilty of violence against protesters and targeting journalists, I think he’d actually saved us from harm that day.”

As she pursues and produces stories and makes her deadlines, Jessica Gray is aware of the risks. So are her parents. Once, after listening to their daughter do a live debrief on CHCH, Gray’s mother admitted “that she started crying.”

“I think that’s when it home how precarious the situation in Cairo had become.”

Jessica Gray has witnessed, and documented, many revolutionary scenes. Below, a selection provided by the journalist. (Scroll over the image to bring up the thumbnails).

Find out more about Media Studies at University of Guelph-Humber.

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Sean Flinn, Web Communications Specialist, 416-798-1331, ext. 6299, sean.flinn@guelphhumber.ca