Authoritarianism makes for bad journalism — often, very bad journalism. The truism is self-evident and more than amply demonstrated by lived experience, not only in Egypt but everywhere in the world.

I don’t think I can say anything about the late Mohammed Hassanein Heikal’s work in journalism, politics, or the public sphere that hasn’t already been said by his friends, colleagues, and students who had the chance to work closely with him throughout his decades-long journey. But I would like to share two of my experiences with him, one personal and one political.

Italian researcher Giulio Regeni was killed in a tragic, horrific and shocking way to any human conscience. The Italian people deserve from Egypt and its hospitable people the warmest condolences for the painful and saddening death. This incident came at a time when Egyptian-Italian relations are flourishing, especially in light of similar, or identical, stances on several regional and international issues, as well as mutual cooperation between the two countries.

By the fifth anniversary of the 25 January Revolution, the conspiracy theory had become a mainstream way for many to understand the uprising as well as its causes and repercussions. In the beginning, talk of conspiracy was untenable and weak and sometimes merely a joke, but it gained momentum and more advocates have since developed mechanisms, channels, and stories to promote the theory. Today, it has become a version that competes with the events of the revolution that are still fresh in our minds.

I met Maya Morsi, who was selected as the chairwoman of the National Council for Women this month, many years ago when she was working at UN Women. She is a young Egyptian mother, an expert on women's affairs and one of the best public policy experts on social gender in Egypt, and perhaps even in all of the Arab world.

Fleeting hopes that Egypt’s militant, street battled-hardened football fans may have breached general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s repressive armour were dashed with this week’s sentencing of 15 supporters on charges of attempting to assassinate the controversial head of storied Cairo club Al-Zamalek SC.

There is no doubt that we are at a critical moment historically, the dominating slogan of which is “hard work and dedication” to build Egypt’s future. I also believe that everyone wishes to see the inclusion of “justice and law enforcement” in the slogan of the moment, without exceptions. This is evidenced by the constitution and the law’s attention to determining the age of retirement in the state’s administrative body. Even the presidential term is clearly and transparently identified in the constitution, and its modification is prohibited under any circumstances. The purpose of all this is to provide an opportunity to introduce new blood to the Egyptian state and its institutions.

I will try my best to be as brief and as concise as possible in this piece for more than one reason. First, the whole issue surrounding Giulio Regeni’s death is incredibly distressing, to the extent that I’m incredibly uncomfortable writing about it. Second, this is a newspaper, after all, and its readers are not necessarily willing to tolerate the vast details associated with his death and its significance. Third, after everything that’s been written about the brutal death of Regeni, I hardly doubt that I can come up with anything new. Therefore, this piece is not about human rights violations, or freedom of expression, or the vulgar resurrection of the police state, or even how the Egyptian regime is so adamant in its distortion of the facts and offers half truths; I honestly don’t think anyone is in need of an opinion piece to realise that all those things are an everyday reality in Egypt. This piece is about the significance of Regeni’s death to us researchers, academics, journalists and ordinary Egyptians who have an interest in the sharing of knowledge and the pursuit of truth.

It is indisputable that Egypt’s administration needs drastic reforms to be able to meet the requirements for any kind of development, and to turn the slogans of the 2011 revolution and 2013 uprising into a reality. The ancient bureaucratic body lost its professional competency over the time, as well as its political and ideological neutrality, soon becoming part of the problem rather than a solution.

They are killed. Or maimed, threatened, traumatized, harassed – the list unfortunatelygoes on drawing a picture of a profession whose risks are on the rise.

I wrote earlier about security intrusions that can damage the country as well as the president. I also wrote about an assistant professor at the Faculty of Arts at Cairo University who is preparing her PhD at a university in Europe, while security agencies sent a letter to the university requesting that she be sent back and her studies terminated. I watched on YouTube a phone-in by the president of Cairo University to Gaber El-Armouti’s programme where he read out my article. In the phone call, the university president said it is nothing to do with the university, adding that there may be security reasons relating to the state's higher interests. He also said that anyone can be wrong, even the security agencies.

The 25 January Revolution in 2011 and the 30 June uprising in 2013 reflected one of the noblest and most peaceful events, in which the Egyptian youth led the revolutionary vanguard, overcoming the restrictions surrounding them.

Gaber Nassar sits in his ornate office, behind a huge oak desk covered with piles of papers as he explains why the university he leads recently banned women from teaching while wearing the niqab, a veil that covers the face but reveals the eyes. "Everyone has the right to dress how they want, but on one condition: Don't break the rules," says Nassar, the president of Cairo University, one of Egypt's oldest academic institutions.

Mr.President, I would like to know who thinks with you. Who takes decisions without consulting with you? Who is causing your reputation to decline? Who is responsible for the continuous wasting of the looming opportunities? Mr President, do not believe those whispering to you, saying that your elite can convince the people with what you want. The people no longer believe the lying elite. Actually, Egypt no longer has elite. Do not believe those whispering to you saying that the angry youth stand on shaking ground and that the people trust them no more. The opposite is true; the people await hope for change. I absolutely do not mean you. I mean the change the people have been waiting for since January 2011.

I never met Giulio Regeni. However, for the past 10 days since his disappearance I have reached out to mutual friends of ours in a desperate attempt to put together the fractured pieces about the theft of this beautiful stolen soul. The past five years in Syria, Egypt, and the Mediterranean have been years of mourning. Like myself, Giulio was a student at the University of Damascus in 2010. He had spent years of his life mastering the Arabic language between Damascus, London, and Cairo. He lived life between languages. His work as a PhD student was to piece together the fragments of information we can find on labour movements in Egypt. His passion was to render visible those lost bodies under the yolk of production and capital. Giulio was able to translate what so often is lost: the memory and hope for dignity and life in between home and exile.

On the first day of Ramadan in summer 2014, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (also known as Daesh) declared itself the new Caliphate. A few days later it put out, in print and on-line, its first issue of Dabiq, a glossy magazine, as its mouthpiece to the English-speaking public. Similar magazines were also issued in Russian, Turkish, French and other languages. Dabiq continues to publish, with 13 issues over 19 months so far, averaging 60 pages in an issue.

The fall of oil prices during the last year and a half has been dramatic, starting in autumn 2014 where the price kept fluctuating in downward spiralling cycles, until it reached its current level of under $30 per barrel. For those who does not remember, repairing the oil price collapse that occurred in 1986 after some OPEC members followed a dumping policy took 14 years until prices returned to the above $20 per barrel level, with the exception of the nine months around Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait when oil wells were in flames.

The fifth anniversary of the revolution should have seen an Egypt where the roadmap was completed with the election of a new parliament, the country was on the road to security and stability, and the people had begun to reap the fruits of economic development.

an article titled “Happy New Year”, I said that 2015 was a bright year for Egyptian cinema and that I was confident that 2016 would continue to be a success. Since the beginning of 2016, there have been signs that a different kind of filmmaker is entering the arena. News broke out during the last week that five Egyptians films will be showcased at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival in the Forum; this is the highest Egyptian participation in the festival yet. Four of these films will be debuts for their creators, featuring Mayye Zayed’s “Sunflower Memory”, Islam Kamal’s “Expired”, Maged Nader’s “Fathy Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”, Heba Amin’s “As Birds Flying”, and Tamer Saeed’s feature film “The Last Days of the City”.

President Xi Jinping went from Riyadh to Iran this month to become the first foreign leader to do so following the lifting of international sanctions against the Islamic republic. Saudi leaders could not have been pleased. China and Saudi Arabia (and Egypt) signed $55bn worth of cooperation agreements during Xi’s visit, including a nuclear cooperation pact. Yet Xi’s determination to gain a first-mover advantage in Iran, at a time that Saudi Arabia is seeking to increase rather than reduce the Islamic republic’s international isolation, suggests that more than commerce is at play here.

What has happened in the five years since the 25 January Revolution? This is a question that has been raised by many, with many others believing they have the answer to it.