CAIRO: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Chief Mohamed ElBaradei has allegedly been placed on a blacklist to not appear on Egyptian state television after scathing remarks he made on satellite channels, according to local media reports.
The incident was mentioned in Monday’s show of “Al Qahira Al Youm, hosted by Amr Adib on the Orbit satellite network, and on the Egyptian web portal Masrawy.
According to the Masrawy report, ElBaradei was placed on a blacklist by the Ministry of Information of public personalities no longer allowed to appear on state television after remarks he made on the Dream satellite channel’s “Al-Ashera Masa’an program which were deemed critical of Egypt.
Talking to host Mona Al Shazly, ElBaradei said Egypt deserves better when it comes to political reform and called for a clearer separation of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of political power in the country.
The IAEA chief also stated that the man in the street was dissatisfied with the current circumstances in the country and that there was a need to admit mistakes had been made. More explosively, ElBaradei called for constitutional changes that would limit presidential rule to two terms only.
The decision to prohibit ElBaradei from appearing on public television was not formally announced or declared by any relevant of the authorities and thus cannot be substantiated or officially confirmed.
Inas Abou Youssef, associate professor of mass communications at Cairo University, did not believe such a decision had been made, saying, “If it is true, it goes against the idea of transparency. But I doubt it because now we have many satellite channels, so they would not think with this mentality.
First, we must be sure that this is true. We cannot pass any judgment until this is verified.
Nabil Abdel-Fattah from Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies said however that decisions such as these, when made, are never announced nor put into writing.
“These sorts of [ban orders] are usually not announced or documented, from fear of it being challenged in administrative court, as it is illegal and unconstitutional, he said. “This is state television, not the television of the ruling party or the current information minister; it is funded by the public.
Therefore, “These decisions are not documented so the government is not subjected to any criticism. This logic of banning public personalities from appearing on Egyptian television reflects a gap between official thinking and the major transformations in world media. People no longer need to appear on public television to get their points across, Abdel-Fattah said.
ElBaradei was on a visit to Egypt last week and while speaking at a dinner held in his honor by the British Egyptian Business Association, he spoke at length about the widening gap between the rich and poor in Egypt and how there needed to be an adjustment in governance in Egypt.
“I went to one of the slums in Cairo. It really pains you immensely to see fellow human beings living in sub-human conditions . In Cairo, there are 8 million people out of 15 million who live in slums . That is a blot on our conscience.
“Governance is key. Governance means rule of law, means human rights, economic opportunities and human development, he said.
ElBaradei had also called for dialogue with opposition groups, mainly the Muslim Brotherhood.
“And you need to reach out, even if you disagree with a certain political view. The so-called [Muslim] Brotherhood, I need to talk to, I need to talk to everyone because there is no other way to try and understand that we are one country, he said.
