Egypt is about to make it a crime to cite any unofficial source about fights with Islamists. In effect, all journalism will be reduced to parroting the state.

Covering the trials of alleged "terrorists" will also be a crime. Of course, these people are not necessarily real terrorists. They might be real dissidents. In Egypt, they may have done no more than be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Aside from being an injustice in its own right, it will mean that we hardly know anything about what is happening in Egypt's Islamist rebellion. We will get only the lies of a government that feels empowered to lie.