Dozens of employees at Maspero, the state TV and radio headquarters, held a protest outside the building on Wednesday. They denounced restrictions placed on them, the lack of free speech and what they described as a “militarized media.”
Employees grew angry when the administration cut off a TV show’s live broadcast Friday on Cairo Channel without warning or explanation.
Sherif Mohamed, the TV show’s director, told Egypt Independent that the program was criticizing media corruption and hypocritical media professionals who switched sides after last winter’s uprising. He showed videos of them crying in sympathy with Mubarak when the revolution erupted in January, 2011.
Mohamed says he wrote a petition to Minister of Information Ahmed Anis complaining about having his show cut off.
“We still have senior officials who got their posts through bribery and nepotism. After such incidents, there is no doubt, state TV will lose viewership,” said Mohamed, adding that the next episode will be even more daring as it will talk about corrupt journalists.
The protest was organized by the Media Revolutionaries Front, an activist movement formed in March after former President Mubarak resigned and the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) took over power. Since then, it has sought to eradicate decades of corruption and purge state media of Mubarak loyalists.
The protesters chanted under the window of Anis’s office: “I’ll never shut up even if I risk death,” and “Oh Minister of Information, stop lying and tell people the truth,” and “Oh Minister of military media, go join them at the military camp.”
Anis is a military general who used to head the Moral Affairs Department, which is responsible for the military’s public relations.
“In the last period, and in an attempt to enforce SCAF's policy, there have been huge restrictions put on the space given to us to express our opinions,” said Esam Saeed, head producer at Cairo TV channel who recently rejected a promotion to become the channel’s deputy president, in protest of the military-dominated media.
Many TV and radio employees have faced similar intimidation. For presenting views critical of SCAF, one radio program was taken off the air and at least five state TV and radio presenters were referred to the state prosecution. In addition, counter-revolutionary figures have been appointed to senior posts.
“This is a professional, ethical and political crime and an act hostile to the revolution,” said Saeed.
Saeed added that threats were made against his crew to reduce its opposition to SCAF and support for the revolution by inviting guests who were less pro-revolution.
“We’ll continue to unleash the truth as much as we can. However, a radical change has to take place in order to liberate the state media. The media has to be owned by the people and not the regime and this relies on the overall success of the revolution which will happen when revolutionaries come to power,” said Khaled al-Ashry, director at Cairo Channel.
