On Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry praised the White House’s criticism of western media outlets’ alleged disregard to cover 78 terrorist assaults around the world, according to a statement issued by the ministry’s official spokesperson, Ahmed Abou Zaid.
The statement follows a release by the White House of a list of 78 terror attacks—dating back from September 2014 to December 2016—western media has allegedly ignored.
“We praise the stance of US President Donald Trump regarding how western media ignored terror attacks around the world, as well as the White house’s list of 78 terror attacks western media has disregarded—including nine attacks in Egypt,” the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ spokesperson read.
Abou Zaid noted that the White House list and the criticism of Trump towards western media’s biased coverage is consistent with recurring calls from Egypt, stipulating the necessity of adopting a comprehensive strategy by the international community to fight terrorism.
This comprehensive strategy should be consistent and unbiased in all of its components, including political and cultural ones, as well as in its security aspect and media coverage, the statement added.
Moreover, it highlighted the prejudice and selective policy of some western media channels that have been faced by criticism from Trump and said that it was sorrowful that these outlets not only neglected media coverage of some terror attacks, but that they covered them with subjectivity.
“The prejudice of some western media outlets criticised by Trump is not only restricted to ignoring the attacks, but it rather extends to the biased media coverage of these outlets to these assaults,” the statements read.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ statement said that while those media outlets showed sympathy and support to states and communities that have been subjected to terror attacks, they accused Egypt’s regime of security failures in preventing terror attacks that left hundreds dead.
“Egypt faced accusations from western media outlets when it was subjected to terror attacks, such as the Russian aeroplane crash and the Cairo church bombing, which some media outlets tried to depict as a reflection of Egypt’s negligence in protecting its Coptic citizens,” the statement read.
At the end of the statement, and on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abou Zaid expressed how Egypt aspires to witness in the upcoming period a “quantum leap” in the way through which the international community is dealing with terrorism.
The statement also added how Egypt aspires for the US to achieve success in affecting the international arena to achieve the required change and revision.
