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CAIRO – A week before Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi issued a decree vastly expanding his powers and prohibiting judicial review of his decisions, an Egyptian satellite TV station, famous for helping re-energize the Egyptian uprising in February 2011, was forced off the air.
(Morsi, on Saturday, scaled back the decree, but this week's vote on a new constitution will go ahead as planned.)
The station, Dream TV, rose to international prominence after broadcasting an interview with former Google executive and Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim -- an interview that re-inspired the protest movement that led to the end of Hosni Mubarak’s presidency.
On Nov. 15, the Egyptian government-run satellite company and broadcast authority cut the signal. The minister of information, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, said in a statement that the location of Dream TV’s studios violated the law because the studios are not in the Cairo suburb designated for live broadcasts.
Dream TV journalists disagree. They say the closure was a result of the station's criticism of Morsi’s government. “The decision is not legal but political,” Dream TV anchor Wael Al-Ibrashy was reported as saying on air before the transmission was cut. “The channel is being punished for a political stance.”
NBC tried to contact Information Minister Salah Abdel Maqsoud for comment but has not received a response.
As protests continued, President Mohammed Morsi rescinded a controversial decree he issued weeks ago, assuming control of the judiciary. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.
Dream TV has since gone back on the air temporarily; it may be shut down again pending a court ruling.
The station’s struggle is just one of hundreds of battles being waged in the fight for an independent Egyptian media.
Journalists in Egypt face around 30 Mubarak-era laws in the criminal code meant to muzzle the media, with the potential to punish journalists with hefty fines and years in jail.
Hundreds of complaints
So far this year, Egyptian judges have filed at least 900 formal complaints against television channels and journalists, according to the English-language Al Ahram Online.
“The laws haven’t changed,” said Cairo-based Human Rights Watch researcher Heba Morayef. “The penal code criminalizes everything from insulting the president to insulting public institutions to insulting a foreign king.”
In early December, 11 Egyptian newspapers participated in a “news blackout” to protest Morsi’s decree and potential constitutional restrictions on journalists.
Despite the government’s arrest and prosecution of journalists, the state’s actions have not had a chilling effect on speech. Egyptians can speak their minds more than at any time in most people’s memory, and there are dozens of new independent TV channels and newspapers.
“People are hungry for politics, and there’s a lot of new media,“ said Said Sadek , an Egyptian political sociologist. “It’s difficult today to restrict ideas.”
Egypt's Morsi annuls move that gave him special powers
Even under Mubarak’s dictatorship, independent, privately owned media, like Dream TV, gave a platform to opposition and human rights groups -- within limits.
By contrast, the state-owned newspapers and TV stations were essentially Mubarak’s propaganda mouthpieces.
Although Egyptians favor independent, privately owned newspapers to the state-owned press, the state-owned, nationally broadcast TV channels are still very powerful. They are directly controlled by the government’s Ministry of Information.
Many journalists and free-speech advocates hoped that when Morsi took office and ended military rule in August, he would abolish the country’s Byzantine press rules and dismantle the Ministry of Information.
Head of state TV quits
Instead, Morsi appointed Maqsoud, the fellow Muslim Brotherhood member, to run the ministry. Analyst Elijah Zerwan says state media’s coverage is more balanced than under Mubarak, but it still favors those in charge, as evidenced by recent coverage of the anti-Morsi protests in Tahrir Square and around Egypt.
“They are interviewing people in the square and showing protests, but also featuring a lot of guests from the Brotherhood,” Zerwan said. “So they seem to be struggling with it.”
'Men don't have to worry about being caught': Sex mobs target Egypt's women
That struggle appears to have pushed the head of state TV over the edge. On Thursday Dec. 6, he submitted his resignation.
“I resigned in protest at the general administration of this regime,” former state TV head Essam Al-Amir said, as reported by the English-language Daily News Egypt. “It is not only about the Egyptian state media. The entire political situation has pushed me to quit.”
Al-Amir said the government had requested that state TV programming include more voices that presented the government’s view, the Daily News reported.
ANALYSIS: Egyptians warn Morsi is no friend of US
Journalist Rania Al Malky worries that Morsi’s government will take Egyptian media backward.
"There is this fear that it's going to be a return to how it was before, with the people in power controlling the message and framing the messages that are coming out of the national press,” she said.
Malky and other journalists fear Egypt’s new draft constitution enshrines the country’s restrictive press laws, notably by curbs on freedom of expression. At press time, the vote on the draft is scheduled for Dec. 15.
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- ANALYSIS: Egyptians warn Morsi is no friend of US
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With the political situation as it stands right now, it looks like Morsi will probably try to prevent any resistance from accessing the state owned radio. It will take great courage to continue to get information out to the world about what is happening in Egypt. With the current tensions and recent blackout, it seems unlikely Morsi will allow the opposition to be able to address their concerns to the world.
The title of this article is trying to say it's Mubarak's fault that Morsi is taking away the freedoms of the media? Really? I thought the lets blame it on the former guy was done with after this election.
I just don't get why people act so surprised that the Muslim Brotherhood would act in such a manner. These guys got their playbook from Iran.
Now it's Iran's fault. Why not just blame them for everything.
It is not Iran's fault, but the circumstances are similar to Iran. Islamist fundamentalist take over a Western aligned dictator who progressed into a brutal regime. Both the Shah, and eventually Mubarak dies soon after their reign ends. The Islamists grab power, right in front of the liberals.
There is a connection with the Muslim Brotherhood and Islam. Hamas.
Getting one's playbook from Iran doesn't necessarily make it Iran's fault. Just like when other counties got their ideas about democracy from the US, that didn't make it the US's fault. A bit of a linguistic difference there, perhaps a bit complex to easily perceive.
STOP SUPPORTING MORSI AND THE TERRORIST MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD.
The US foreign policy supports anyone who will make sure that our countries
will remain poor, primitive, uneducated and above all dependent and the US
media's role is to propogate lies to justify and defend US foreign policy.
The US Embassy in Cairo had the nerves to post on its facebook page an
article written in the Atlantic questioning whether Morsi is an"Abe Lincoln in
Disguise or just another dictator" . The New York Times bureau chief in Cairo
David K. Kirkpatrick has the nerves to call the muslim brotherhood "moderates"
and believing that the MB have an undemocratic and islamists agenda is a
misplaced view" in accordance to his words.
There's a movement now in Egypt to spread the truth about the violent Muslim
Brotherhood and to bring it to the West. The Muslim Brotherhood brutally beat
peaceful protests and forced protests to say that they are Mubarak loyalists or
that they have been paid by baradei to protests. I am keeping a track of all
these bias and disgusting reporting and we will work on spreading the
truth
we are suffering bec. of the muslim brotherhood and morsi now time for the media to speak the truth! the muslim brotherhood try to assassinate journalists. this is what their history is made of and this is what they do now.
Isis, I lived in Libya during my High School years and graduated there. Afterwards I went to American University. In both countries I saw the same thing, more than 40 years ago, that's hapening now.
One thing I learned during my youthful travels; I also was in school, through age 12, in Greece; is that oppresive regimes are rife in both Europe and Africe. I saw the carnage personally in what then was Bi-Africa, the ugliness of Aparthied, death, destruction, rapine simply for no reason other than it could be done. There were riots in Greece also protesting the Government at various times during my life there.
The only way to control a Dictator, even one elected such as Mursi who promised not to be what he is, is to protest, peacefully if at all possible, doubtful in Egypt as it stands today, and scream about it as loudly as possible. Violence can be used but only to put down violence against you. Violence works only as a last resort.
Yes, Mursi must be kept in check, the Judiciary must have a say. But the thing to remember is that in Egypt, as in much of the Middle East, including Israel, the military holds the keys. If the military decides it doesn't like the person in power, that person is history.
This is probably what is going to happen in Syria. More and more of the military is reblling against the regime. Assad is going or has gone too far even for military personnel, from the lowest to the highest. His days are numbered and will probably end with him being killed or being granted asylum in a friendly, think Iran, Middle Eastern country.
If Mursi continues on the present course he thinks is in his best interest, he may end up in the same situation. Democracy is messy and the Egyptians are learning on the fly. Mursi will be kept in check by either the people of that nation or the military.
I was in Cairo mid October after 911. The News paper headline was "America Feels Wrath of Ala". The Egyptian people didn't know anything then and the new government doesn't want them to know anything now. This will never change. If the Egyptian President Mohammed Morsis keep his countrymen oppressed and uneducated of reality he will maintain control. This is happening in America today. Lets Worry About America and NOT the Middle East.
The wrath of Alabama? Just kidding.
So what. Here so called journalists struggle under political pressure from the DNC and the WH. What's the diff?
Welcome to the new Mullah Land. Here in this wonderful land of repression and hate, you can stone women, sexually abuse little boys and force 13 year olds to marry old men for the good and praise of Allah. So this is the wonderful ideas from Islam and they want that same thing right here in the US. Yes, of course, invite them in to tear down our culture and way of life. Welcome them to our communities, as they come from such a strong and vibrant culture.
The Muslim Brotherhood is a very clever and political organization. They have waited decades, since the 50's when they were outlawed, to get power. The facebook generation opened the door. They strategically grabbed power. They will continually push the boundaries to gain full control of Egypt, the most populated Islamic country. When Morsi's recent grab for absolute power blew up, he backed off. He will try again as he is the puppet of the Brotherhood and Al Shatar. Their goals, as it has been since Al Bana and Qtub, is to create the Islamic Caliphate. Hamas is their terrorist arm, and they have connections to Iran and Hezbollah, even though both are primarily Shi'ite.
Our intelligence community, along with Mossad is continually monitoring the developments, but their abilities have been proven wrong as many of their assets are buried within Egypt and Libya, and are not trustworthy.