Bassem Youssef, presenter of the Al-Bernameg program on MBC Egypt, said his program has been stopped indefinitely and thanked the channel.
Youssef held a press conference on Monday where he said it was better to end the show rather than "offending it." Although he had received offers to air the program outside of Egypt, he refused as it "would kill its credibility," adding that "YouTube cannot fund the show".
“The problem is not in the content,” he said. “We are fed up of moving from one channel to the other.”
Al-Bernameg gained popularity under the rule of the ousted president Mohamed Morsy with scathing criticisms of the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist factions. After Morsy’s overthrow, Youssef shifted to satirical criticisms of former defense minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s presidency supporters. Neither regime has been tolerant of Youssef's criticisms.
MBC had temporarily suspended the show until 30 May “so as not to influence voters during the presidential elections,” according to a statement by the network in April.
The show had been faced with trials under Morsy over charges of blasphemy and libel, while it was prevented from CBC satellite channel after Morsy’s ouster over material satirical of the transitional authorities.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
