CAIRO: As a ruling army council general criticized on Monday the media’s "incitement" against the military during ongoing violence near the Cabinet building, dissenting state media reporters in Maspero vocally slammed their lack of freedom.
"I used to be silent during Mubarak’s time, but now, after the revolution with all the fallen martyrs, I cannot be silent anymore," anchor in state-owned Radio Masr, Ziad Ali, told Daily News Egypt Monday.
Ali was notified Sunday that his program “Tel’et Shams El-Naharda” (Today’s Sun Has Risen) was suspended, that he will no longer go live on air, and that he will only present pre-recorded programs.
On Sunday’s episode, Ali slammed statement 90 released by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to which a video was attached showing a group of civilians vandalizing the Cabinet building.
"I urged SCAF to release all the videos, including those showing violations by the army forces and not to edit the videos and show them out of the context," Ali explained, adding that he also blamed Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzoury for not living up to his promise never to use violence against protesters.
"My manager later told me that the Minister of Information was extremely angered by my stance regarding SCAF and ordered the suspension of the program," Ali continued.
He said that the whole radio staff will meet to discuss possible ways to bring the show back on air, and look into possible escalations if the administration declines.
Ali’s colleague, Nermine El-Banby, anchor of the morning show Esha Lel Donia (Wake Up to the World) urged listeners on her Twitter account to call the program and voice their criticism of SCAF on air to counter the intentional media blackout.
"They are ordering us not to discuss the blood that was spilled but to focus on buildings that were burnt," El-Banby complained on her Twitter account.
"For [the Maspero administration] lack of bias means showing protesters throwing Molotov cocktails, while showing the violations committee by police and 20 martyrs is incitement," she said, commenting on the deadly Mohamed Mahmoud clashes late November.
Reports released late Monday suggested she was being investigated for her comments. The reports couldn’t be independently verified by press time.
Yet anchors at Nile News TV Channel believe that the battle is more challenging since a larger audience is affected by the views of state-owned TV which reaches all Egyptian homes. The government doesn’t give terrestrial TV licenses to private companies.
Nile News anchor Amal Roushdy told DNE that bias in favor of SCAF is reaching an unbearable limit, which is affecting the quality of the daily newscast.
"The on air reports in the newscast are not showing the two sides of the story, we just cover one side of it, which favors SCAF and the government," Roushdy said.
Roushdy complained that as an anchor she cannot control the reports aired, because simply they are edited according to the will of the Maspero administration.
The choice of news and the selected sound bites are all manipulated to direct viewers and influence their perception, Roushdy said.
"For example, we are not allowed to cover the funerals of martyrs like Shiekh Emad Effat or the medical student Alaa Abdel Hady, and the choice of guests hosted on our shows to discuss events is controlled by the administration," she said.
Roushdy says that as a journalist she wants to be objective and professional without being biased towards one side over the other.
"I do not want to completely skew the coverage in favor of the protesters; I just want to fairly represent the two sides," she said.
"Until now, no TV shows were suspended, but anything can happen," she continued, adding that the Maspero administration used to refer anchors to investigation, but they changed this technique because it caused many problems.
"They started to do what they did to Ziad. They would cancel the show, telling you the programs’ plans will change and marginalize you," she explained.
SCAF General Adel Emara criticized in a press conference Monday the performance of local satellite TV channels, accusing them of lack of professionalism and urging them to comply with the ethical media standards.
"We urge the media to fear Allah and be aware of the dangerous moment we are going through," Emara said.
Publisher Hisham Kassem believes that SCAF crackdown on the media is illogical.
"These practices are illogical and prove that they do not want to leave power, which I am sure of," he said.
He said that by nature, the military institution in Egypt does not accept criticism in the media which shows that SCAF does not understand the political role they are playing.
