By Magdy Samaan
CAIRO: A TV program on Egyptian parliamentary elections wasn’t aired on BBC Arabic Wednesday after the channel wasn’t allowed to film the talk show in a private studio in Egypt.
BBC Arabic apologized to its viewers for not airing the first episode of its new talk show “Question Time” for reasons it said were out of its control.
Guests invited to the program were Mona Makram Ebaid of Al-Wafd Party, Helmy El-Gazzar of the Muslim Brotherhood, Gihad Ouda of the National Democratic Party (NDP), and Head of the Democratic Front Party Osama El-Ghazaly Harb, who was to represent the various other political figures who decided to boycott this year’s elections.
Five hours before the episode was to be filmed in a Cairo studio on Tuesday, Ouda informed producers that he would not be able to attend the shooting.
Ouda explained that he would not be able to participate because of NDP commitments he had to fulfill in the Suhag governorate, a source working with the channel who preferred to remain anonymous said.
On Tuesday after the guests arrived, the owner of the studio rented for the episode told the producers that the shooting was canceled, moments before its starts, the source said.
Magdy El-Shenawy, owner of the Misc Studio, told Daily News Egypt that he had informed the producers that he needed permission to film the episode from the Ministry of Information, which they promised to deliver.
El-Shenawy said that when the producers failed to deliver the permission on Tuesday, he refused to allow them to film in his studio.
Producers from the show said they couldn’t acquire the required permission from the authorities.
They said they were given conflicting reasons from different officials about the reasons, which included not acquiring a special permit from media monitoring authorities and hosting a Muslim Brotherhood member.
Government officials showed discontent over the BBC’s coverage of the elections, and the NDP recently issued a statement that accused the BBC of bias in their elections coverage.
