WINNING THE WOT:

In Egypt, a new outlet for reform: 'Egypt Today' is a newspaper that embodies the changes the US seeks in the Middle East. (Dan Murphy, 6/11/04, CS Monitor)

Al-Mesri Al-Yom, or Egypt Today, started publishing on June 7 after months of wrangling over its press license. The stated goals of its publisher, Hisham Kassem, are right in line with US plans for a region where the media are typically muzzled, and the political opponents of existing regimes are often jailed.

"All I want to do is create a newspaper of record, with full and fair coverage, that will hopefully bring some pressure to bear on the government," says Mr. Kassem. "We may fail, but a few years ago I wouldn't have been allowed to try."

His paper joins another new offering, Egyptian Renaissance, which is officially incorporated in Cyprus but that the government has allowed to distribute.

Whether these new papers signal bigger changes to come or a minor cosmetic effort by the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, who spurned an invitation to the G-8 summit over complaints that US initiatives for change in the Middle East are too strident, remains to be seen.