Egypt’s Supreme Council for Media Regulation (SCMR), headed by Makram Ahmed, addressed the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) to suspend the digital marketing Mo4 Network after it published a sarcastic article about Egyptian passports.
This came after the council received a number of complaints against the website, and requests to open urgent investigations into the matter.
El Fasla magazine, one of Mo4 Network projects, published on Sunday an article covering the latest report of the Passport Index.
The magazine’s article reported that the Emeriti passport comes on the top of the list, as it can allow its citizens to enter about 167 countries without a visa, while the Egyptian passport allows its citizens to enter only 56 countries.
The magazine mocked the Egyptian passport by commenting on results of the index saying: “with your Egyptian passport you can roam around rural areas”.
The SCMR’s statement said that the magazine did not apply for a license to operate, and there exists no registered information about its founders.
Several media outlets have responded to El Fasla’s article by publishing on social media networks reports showing the countries that the Egyptian passport can allow citizens to enter without a visa.
This is not the first incident of its kind for Mo4, as in 2017 one of their projects ‘’the Scene’ magazine, which was providing light and entertaining stories, published a video mocking armed forces products.
The video raised a nationwide controversy and became viral on websites and Youtube. The website was blocked following the spread of the video.
The co-founder and CEO of Mo4 Network is Amy Mowafi, who owns one of the leading creative and media agencies in Egypt.
