The dissolved Shura Council accused media outlets of “demonising all that is Islamist” and “paving the way for all that is secular” in a press conference held at the Rabaa Al-Adaweya pro-Mohamed Morsi sit-in on Tuesday.
The press conference was organised by the dissolved council’s culture and media committee to discuss media practices after what they described as the “military coup” carried out against Morsi on 3 July. The committee accused media outlets of “wiping out all Morsi’s achievements.”
It condemned the media for “failing to acknowledge” the killing of journalists such as Ahmed Assem, a journalist at the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) newspaper who was killed while covering the Republican Guards clashes between pro-Morsi protesters and security officials on 8 July.
It stated that the media incited the forcible dispersal of “peaceful sit-in”, in reference to the Rabaa and Al-Nahda sit-ins, by claiming they are armed.
It also condemned the media for “claiming that pro-Morsi protesters use women and children as human shields in their protests.
Eman Qandil, Al-Wasat Party member and former council member, described reports about human shields as an insult to the Egyptian woman’s “will”.
“The will of the Egyptian woman, who assisted leader Saad Zaghloul in his cause and who took part in the 1973 war against Israel cannot be manipulated,” Qandil said. She added that children come to sit-ins as parts of families who “chose to side with legitimacy”.
Khaled Bannoura, FJP member and former council member, condemned “media practitioners who sold their consciences to falsely market the military coup as a popular revolution.”
The committee called for ending “direct and indirect censorship” on all media outlets and called for reversing the decision to close down religious channels.
They also described interim president Adly Mansour’s decision to void the Supreme Press Council. Mansour’s decision came as ratification to a cabinet bill which gives the president the right to form a new Supreme Press Council made up of 15 members.
The new council would replace the one formed by the dissolved Shura Council in September 2012 and comprise of 50 members.
The dissolved council also announced a “media blacklist” including those they accused of “complicity in violating the code of media ethics”. The list included; Bassem Youssef, Tawfiq Okasha, Sekina Fouad, Khairy Ramadan, Lamis Al-Hadidy, Amr Adeeb, Emad Al-Din Adeeb, Mahmoud Saad, Wael Al-Ebrashy, Ibrahim Eissa, and Sayed Ali.
