Ministry of Information (Egypt)

The Ministry of Information (Arabic: وزارة الإعلام) was the ministry in charge of state-owned media and press in Egypt, and for regulating the practices through affiliate agencies between 1971 until its latest dissolution in 2021.

History and profile
During president Anwar Sadat's 11 year tenure, the ministry was renamed and restructured a number of times. In the first cabinet in October 1970 the Ministry of Culture and National Guidance was split into one for culture, and another for national guidance with Mohamed Fayek appointed as minister Within a month the Ministry of National Guidance was renamed as the Ministry of Information with the same minister. After a further few months, in May 1971, the Mohamed Abdelqader Hatem was named Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Information.

In 1978 after signing a peace treaty with Israel, Sadat restructured the government and dissolved the ministry with his new prime minister Mostafa Khalil saying that "state supervision of the information media has come to an end." This would not last long, and In 1979 it was again bundled as the Ministry of Culture and Information (during Mansour Hassan's tenure).

Under president Hosni Mubarak, the Ministry of Information was reestablished in 1982 after being spun off from the Ministry of Culture and Information. In 1986 Mubarak officially set out its mandate bringing the Egyptian Radio and Television Union and the State Information Service under its supervision. The ministry would remain intact with only two ministers taking the post during Mubarak's 30-year rule.

The Ministry of Information was dissolved in February 2011 when the new cabinet was created under Prime Minister Essam Sharaf in the wake of the Egyptian Revolution and the purge of Hosni Mubarak's regime.

However, it was reestablished a few months later in July 2011 and Osama Heikal was appointed as minister

The ministry was dissolved for a third time in 2021 after the resignation of Osama Heikal, and was not reestablished in the following cabinet reshuffle in 2022. The National Media Authority has taken up most of its duties overseeing state-owned media.

List of Egyptian Ministers of Information (incomplete)
President Anwar Sadat (1970 — 1981) President Hosni Mubarak (1981 — 2011) Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (2011 — 2012) President Mohamed Morsi (2012 — 2013) Interim President Adly Mansour President Abdelfattah al-Sisi (2014 — )
 * Ahmed Kamal Abulmagd (1974 — )
 * Mansour Hassan (1979–1981; as minister of culture and information)
 * Safwat El-Sherif (1982–2004)
 * Mamdouh al-Beltagui (2004 —2005)
 * Anas el-Fiqqi (2005–2011)
 * Osama Heikal (2011–2012)
 * Salah Abdel Maqsoud (2012–2013)
 * Dorreya Sharaf El-Din (July 2013–June 2014)
 * Osama Heikal (2020–2022, ministry dissolved)

Affiliated agencies

 * Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU)
 * State Information Service (SIS)
 * Middle East News Agency (MENA)
 * Egyptian Media Production City (EMPC)
 * Nilesat