Anwar al-Hawary is one of them. He sits behind his tidied, polished desk joking with one of his editors about his newly found popularity. "They fear me now and that is what I enjoy the most," the al-Wafd newspaper's editor-in-chief, told the Middle East Times.

Al-Hawary was referring to two sentences handed down by judges condemning him to two years in prison and one month of hard labor, respectively. The court rulings said that al-Hawary "published false news" in the Arabic daily newspaper.

Al-Hawary does not seem to mind potential jail time, in fact it seems to have given him a new sense of direction. A journalist since 1984, he welcomes the opportunity to advance his career.

"I welcome prison. I don't fear it. It will be a new stage for me in my journalistic life. I feel it would be amazing to write from prison," he continues. He is just one of the many independent and opposition journalists who have come under the government's wrath in recent months.

September was highlighted by the conviction of leading editors Wael al-Ibrashi of the weekly Sawt al-Umma, Ibrahim Eissa of the daily al-Dostour, Abdel Halim Qandil of al-Karama and Adel Hammouda of the weekly al-Fagr, who were each given one-year jail sentences for "defaming the president" as well as a fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($3,500).

"All of Egypt knows that what we have reported on was true and this is what is important," al-Hawary argued. "They [the government] are cracking down on the press because of their growing fear of the power of knowledge and the power of a free press, not because of me or individual journalists."

The court rulings come a little over one year since Parliament passed a controversial press statute that Amnesty International said "curtailed freedom of expression." In the July 2006 law, insulting public officials continued to carry prison sentences and the government has taken advantage of such wordings.

The Union of Egyptian Journalists described the sentences as a "declaration of war on press freedom."

"I want all journalists to rest assured that this freedom will not be touched," Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said, only days after the four editors were sentenced to jail terms for what their newspapers had reported.

International rights groups, such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders have condemned the Egyptian government for its continued usurpation of press freedoms.

"The growing number of court cases brought against Egyptian journalists is in complete contradiction with Hosni Mubarak's electoral program," RSF said.

"The deterioration in relations between the independent and opposition press is a reminder that freedom to inform can never be taken for granted. Egyptian journalists, although freer than their colleagues in other parts of the Arab world, have to face a return to censorship and control of the media," the organization said.

The recent battle for the pages of Egypt's newspapers has also allowed for journalists in the country to look inward at the state of media in the country. Al-Hawary believes Arabic press in the country is on the right path and will only improve in the years to come.

"People must understand that here in Egypt we do not have a truly independent press, but we hope for it to improve. Right now we are in a transitional period to continue to move in that direction," Al-Hawary said.

One of the main things al-Wafd's editor said was eating away at many of the Egyptian independent journalists was the fact that the United States has basically turned a blind eye to their struggle for freedom.

"We believe we are moving democracy and freedom forward in this country, but nobody seems to care outside our borders," al-Hawary argued.

It was only a few years ago when the Bush administration trumpeted up Egypt as the gem of the Middle East. Now, very little, if anything has come out of Washington recently concerning press freedoms and democracy.

"The process of democratization has its ups and downs," Rice said earlier this year in Cairo. "But the United States will continue to speak about the importance of democracy, a great nation like Egypt leading the move to democracy in this region."