Cairo, 22 February 2012

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) and the Centre to Support State of Law (CSSL) deeply deplore the ongoing restraints and flagrant censorship on mass media and channels owners for their targeting of media professionals who criticize the authorities’ violations. Most recently, the administrative board of Modern Hurriya channel cut off the live broadcasting of Moataz Matar’s show “Mahattet Masr”. Matar was addressing the activities of the State Security Investigations Service and the restrictions he was subjected to during Mubarak’s rule. Before he finished his talk about the details of Modern Hurriya’s establishment following Mubarak’s ouster, the live broadcasting was cut off.

In the episode of 21 February of his show, the media professional Moataz Matar talked about previous attempts by the dissolved State Security Investigations Service to prevent him from presenting a show tackling political conditions. Matar mentioned that he was pressured to present sports shows until the end of the presidential elections that were supposed to be held under the rule of Mubarak. However, he refused to succumb to these pressures, and thus the authorities closed the channel altogether.

Matar was trying to talk about a deal that took place during the process of changing the channel from Modern Masr to Modern Hurriya. However, before he could finish his talk, the administration of the channel cut the sound off the show, and then cut off the broadcasting completely and it was not resumed afterwards.

It is worth noting that the broadcasting cut-off has taken place only one day following severe incitement by former Police Generals who belong to the former regime and work in the media, such as Medhat Shalaby. In his sports show “Masaa’ al-Anwar” of Modern Sport channel, Shalaby received a call from one of his viewers who asked him to talk to the owner of Modern Hurriya to suspend Matar because he is biased to the Egyptian revolution. General Shalaby promised him good news, which apparently have been fulfilled as Matar’s show was cut off during live broadcasting and suspended.

“There is an ongoing campaign launched to restrict private media. It began by the exclusion of the media professional Dina Abdel-Rahman from Dream TV. Then, Tahrir TV was sold and its editorial policies have been changed. Many prominent media professionals left Tahrir TV, such as Abdel-Rahman who was prevented from presenting her show. These incidents illustrate that we are so much in need for new legislations emancipating the media from the control of the authorities and the men of capitals, and providing safeguards protecting the editorial policies from the control of channels owners whose interests are directly or indirectly linked to the authorities” said the two signatory organizations.

“We currently do not have any legitimate entity but the elected parliament, especially that the Military Council is not biased to public freedoms or human rights, and lacks any intentions to reform. If the People’s Assembly did not take actions now to achieve the objectives of the Egyptian revolution that demanded freedom, when is it going to? We believe that the Parliament should prove its bias to freedom of the media as one of the revolution’s demands by responding to the calls to restructure the media in Egypt. An independent national council should administer this restructure” added the two organizations.

For more information

Egypt: Media professionals Calling for the Emancipation of Maspero Investigated

Egypt: Journalist’s TV show taken off the air

 

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information

The Centre to Support State of Law

 

العربية