Dream TV owner Ahmed Bahgat stressed that he would not give up on the right to transmit the channel from within Cairo.
“It seems that we have upset the ruling regime,” Bahgat said in a press conference held in Dream Land on Saturday, reported state-owned Akhbar Al-Youm, “despite being the only channel which featured Muslim Brotherhood members before the January 2011 revolution.”
Bahgat stated that ever since taking power, the Brotherhood has been trying to silence the media. “But this isn’t possible, since we can transmit from anywhere around the world using satellites other than the Nile Sat.”
Dream has suspended all service since Thursday evening, broadcasting only a written disclaimer which states that a decision issued by Hisham Qandil’s cabinet bans any broadcast, “despite the broadcast’s legality.”
Minister of Information Salah Abdel Maqsood denied that the decision bans the channels’ broadcast, explaining that the channels’ ability to broadcast the disclaimer is the biggest proof of his words, reported the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU) on its website. Abdel Maqsood explained that only the cables connecting the channels’ studios in Dream Land to the Nile Sat have been disconnected.
Dream has been transmitting from Dream Land; a town in 6 October city, but Abdel Maqsood stated that the only legal transmission site is the state-owned Media Production city. Former Minister of Information Mamdouh Al-Beltagy reportedly gave Dream permission to transmit from another location. Copies of the written permission were reportedly distributed among the attendees of Saturday’s press conference.
TV anchor on Dream, Gehan Mansour, was referred to misdemeanor court for insulting leading Freedom and Justice party figure Essam El-Erian.
El-Erian filed a complaint against Mansour, accusing her of insulting him by calling him a “fascist politician” during a phone call broadcast on her TV show.
Dream channels have been broadcasting live since 2001.
