CAIRO: Egyptian authorities have shut down the Iranian Al-Alam television station’s Cairo office in Maspiro on Thursday, and confiscated their broadcasting equipment, including cameras, computers and recording tapes.
Officials claim the television network was operating without a broadcasting license, but head of the Cairo office, Ahmed El-Seyoufi, insisted they were given the green light to broadcast according to earlier agreements with the government.
“Without a doubt, the Egyptian government is retaliating for the Anwar El-Sadat movie, El-Seyoufi told Daily News Egypt.
Ties between Egypt and Iran were strained once again after Iranian national television aired the controversial film “Assassination of a Pharaoh, which described Sadat’s killer as a “martyr while portraying the former president as a traitor for signing the 1979 Camp David peace treaty with Israel.
The film set off a string of protests from the Egyptian side, including an official diplomatic protest and a statement from the angered Sadat family who threatened to sue the producers of the documentary.
Furthermore, the Egyptian Football Association cancelled a pre-scheduled friendly between the two countries.
Egypt and Iran have been courting during the last couple of months with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad expressing on more than one occasion Iran’s willingness to restore diplomatic relations between the two countries, severed three decades ago.
On the other hand, Egypt insisted that Iran remove large murals showing images of Sadat’s assassin, Khaled El-Islambouli, who also has a street named after him, before they could restore relations.
Al-Alam’s attempts to obtain an official broadcasting license had failed repeatedly, despite being on air for over four years.
“We have been trying very hard all this time to get a license, but the government does not want to license the channel given all the political issues with Iran, El-Seyoufi said.
Currently, network officials are in talks with high-ranking Egyptian officials in an attempt to close the case investigated at the Bolaq police station, and resume broadcasting.
“They need to understand that the Cairo office only does administrative work; we don’t air any programs from here, so why shut us down?
“We have nothing to hide from. We will keep pushing till we are finally granted the license, El-Seyoufi added.
Al-Alam TV is a Tehran-based Arabic-language news channel established in 2003.
