A “farewell note” from prominent Egyptian journalist and popular talk show host Yosri Fouda, posted on his Facebook wall and published in Al Badeel independent newspaper on Thursday, sent shockwaves across a country bracing itself for its first multi-candidate presidential election in less than a week’s time.
In his post written in Arabic, Yosri announced that he would end his evening show “Last Words” in six weeks’ time. The show, broadcast live on weekdays on the private satellite channel ONTV (owned by business tycoon Naguib Sawiris), has earned the veteran journalist wide acclaim and a big following among a public that is thirsty for truth after decades of being kept in the dark.
In what he described as a “personal message to his devoted fans” Yosri stated that he had created the show in order to keep track of the fast-paced developments associated with the revolution and that he was proud to “have had the opportunity—together with my colleagues—to be part of the momentous events, as both an Egyptian patriot and a dedicated professional.”
Yosri reminded his fans that when he had taken on the challenge of presenting the show five days a week, he had declared his intention to quit once Egyptians elect a new president, (which had been expected before the end of last year) “but I felt obliged to continue when things got complicated.”
Yosri affirmed that the timing of his resignation was neither linked to his reading of the current political situation in Egypt nor to his judgement of the future of the revolution.
“I fervently believed then, as I do now, in the goals of the revolution just as I believe in the young people of Egypt who will overcome the challenges and not give in to despair. I am also convinced that my country is the most beautiful country in the world even though I cannot deny that it does have an ugly side,” he added.
The resignation drew an outpouring of disappointment and support for Yosri from thousands of fans on social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, with many of his young supporters urging the veteran talk show host to reconsider his resignation.
“A huge loss at a delicate time! Egypt is now — more than at any other time — in dire need of her honest sons,” read a Facebook post by Ahmed Maher, Egypt’s Ambassador to the Philippines.
“Don’t abandon us,” was a plea posted by another fan, Omneya Zordok, a Sociology Professor based in Zagazig, on Yosri’s Facebook page. “You are the voice of truth that they have for long tried to silence,” she added
“They” clearly refers to the military rulers who have continued the repressive tactics of the previous regime, intimidating and threatening outspoken journalists critical of the military government. After his unbiased coverage of violent protests in central Cairo late last year, scores of Mubarak supporters organised a protest in February outside the administrative headquarters of ONTV in Zamalek denouncing what they described as the news channel’s “policy of incitement against the military council.” The protesters chanted slogans against Yosri Fouda and his fellow anchor Reem Maged. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces had previously summoned Maged and two of her guests for questioning.
Meanwhile, co-hosting the first-ever Presidential debate in the Arab World telecast live on ONTV last week appears to have boosted the popularity of the star journalist, already recognised for his integrity and non- biased reporting.
Some fans drew similarities between Yosri’s decision to quit and an earlier decision by reform leader Mohamed ElBaradei to withdraw from the Presidential race. ElBaradei, who had been widely expected to participate in the upcoming election announced four months ago that he would not run for any office “in the absence of a genuine democratic system.”.
Aliaa El Badrawi, who coordinates the Year Abroad Students Program at the American University in Cairo, said: “I feel Yosri’s decision must have been based on complex issues which affected him negatively and which will also impact his audience in the same way — much like when ElBaradei was forced to pull out from the scene. I hope things turn out in such a way that he won’t have to leave with a heavy heart.”
Addressing Yosri himself, she stated: “you are very much appreciated for your ethics and integrity and you have certainly done a great deal at a critical time for Egypt.”
Many saw Yosri’s decision as a sign that he too had lost faith that any real democratic change would take place in Egypt.
“It’s a sign of hopelessness. He has lost hope that the revolution can bring about tangible change,” Sayed Tolba Allam, a translator at the Saudi Defence Ministry, wrote on Facebook.
Others suggested that Yosri may have been forced to tender his resignation through coercion or threats from the repressive military authorities.
“Yosri may be afraid that once Ahmed Shafeek [the Presidential hopeful supported by the military] becomes the next President as is expected — a series of “revenge assassinations” [of outspoken critics of the military] may follow,” was the scornful explanation offered by dentist Amr Moukhtar.
Several polls have indicated that Presidential hopeful Ahmed Shafeek, a former civil aviation minister under Mubarak, was among the three frontrunners in the presidential race. Widely detested by the revolutionaries, he has the support of the so-called “couch party”—a term used to refer to those yearning for stability but have opted to stay out of politics and were following the ongoing developments on television.
In March, Yosri’s name had appeared on a list of outspoken journalists, writers, politicians and activists to be referred to the Military Prosecutor for investigation on charges of “incitement to demolish the state” and for “driving a wedge between the people and the military rulers.” This, after a complaint signed by 700 civilians against 12 public figures (including two parliamentarians)was filed to the Prosecutor General. The move is a repeat of a Mubarak-era practice that allowed the state to crack down on voices of dissent without direct confrontation.
Although the reasons behind Yosri’s resignation are yet unclear, what is certain is that his decision has deepened the confusion and worry Egyptians feel in the run-up to the presidential vote. The de facto military leader Field Marshal Tantawy has reassured a sceptical public that the elections will be free and fair. But many have been left wondering what has driven Yosri to quit, and why he has decided to announce it now?
As Egypt prepares for presidential elections in less than two weeks’ time, the country is on the brink of chaos. Tensions have been brewing for more than a year and the patience of Egyptians is wearing thin. They yearn for stability and many feel betrayed by the country’s de facto military rulers who have held power since Mubarak was toppled in February 2011.
“The ruling military generals who promised us stability have only delivered brutality and repression,” complained 24-year-old activist Tarek Ali at a protest two weeks ago outside the Defence Ministry in Abbasia.
The violent confrontations between pro-democracy activists and security forces that have erupted sporadically during the transitional period have been the focus of local media, but once again there has been a stark contrast between the independent media coverage of the deadly violence and that shown on Egyptian State TV.
Democracy activists accuse state television of launching a vicious defamation campaign against them — one which, they say, has largely succeeded in turning public opinion against them.
“Right after last year’s mass uprising, everyone was proud of the young activists who started our revolution,” says taxi driver Maher Sobhy. “Now, we hate them for causing chaos and instability.”
The vilification campaign is reminiscent of a similar campaign launched by the state-run broadcaster during last year’s 18-day mass uprising. State TV has long been described by critics as “a propaganda machine” of the ousted authoritarian regime. The broadcaster initially dismissed the anti-Mubarak protests as nonevents, labelling the pro-democracy activists as “foreign agents” and “anarchists.”
When pro-Mubarak rallies were staged on 1 February 2011, state TV channels exaggerated the number of protesters, reporting that “the streets were flooded with thousands of Mubarak supporters” instead of the few hundred who were in fact there. Many Egyptians turned to foreign satellite channels and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to follow the events in central Cairo. Angry protesters in Tahrir Square retaliated by carrying banners that denounced and ridiculed state TV, branding presenters who worked there “liars”.
But halfway through the uprising, state TV made an abrupt turnaround, adopting a more pro-revolutionary tone.
Media analysts saw the change as a sign that the regime was losing its grip on power. But the shift had come too late and state TV had already lost many of its viewers.
For a few weeks after the fall of Mubarak, state television fought to regain credibility. Opposition figures, including Islamists who had not been welcome in the building, were invited to appear on talk shows, and state TV reporters made a noticeable effort to enhance the ratings of their channels through factual, unbiased reporting. But the spell of freedom was short-lived and news editors and anchors soon fell back into their old habits. State employees began practicing self-censorship again after several journalists and talk show hosts working for private channels were summoned to the Military Prosecutors’ office after they criticised the military regime. Two bloggers were convicted in military courts for expressing their views in blog posts and on Facebook — a move that sent a strong message to journalists and broadcasters that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) would not tolerate criticism.
Tamer Hanafi, a news anchor working for the Arabic state-run Nile TV was investigated a few months after the revolution for refusing to heed calls from the station manager to abruptly cut his programme short after his studio guest, the outspoken activist Bothayna Kamel lashed out at the military rulers on air. Tamer, his face flushed with anger, told viewers that he had been ordered to end the show but that he would continue because he did not see anything wrong with Bothayna’s comments.
Other presenters and reporters who attempted to stand up to censorship have been sternly reprimanded by their bosses in recent months. Finding that the stakes are high — they could lose their jobs — most state employees have reverted to the old ways, obediently following directives from senior management.
News anchors complain that they have to read what their editors write without questioning the source. One senior anchor, who spoke on condition of anonymity said she had had to read that “the Emergency Law was in place to guarantee freedoms” and that “protesters in Kasr El Eini were hurling rocks at the military forces” when there had actually been an exchange of rock throwing. “Any anchor who deviates from the adopted state line lands in trouble,” she lamented. During most of the protests, state TV broadcast exclusive footage of the ongoing clashes shot by the Ministry of Interior, most of it portraying the soldiers and riot police as victims rather than aggressors.
Little has changed at the state broadcaster where the anchor lamented that “SCAF has replaced Mubarak as the red line not to be crossed.” Despairingly the anchor explained that the senior military general who was appointed Minister of Information now exercises control over all broadcasts and ensures that state TV continues to churn out propaganda messages about the lack of security, foreign meddling in Egypt’s internal affairs, the threats foreign-funded NGOs pose to national security or the plummeting stock market.
State TV’s flagrantly biased coverage of the deadly October clashes last year between Coptic protesters and security forces triggered another wave of stinging criticism of the state broadcaster, once again earning it the wrath of the public. The news network was accused of inciting the sectarian violence in which at least 27 people were killed — some of them crushed to death by army tanks — after Channel One’s lead anchorwoman Rasha Magdy urged Muslims “to protect the army from Christian attackers.”Although an investigative committee later cleared state TV of the charge, critics like media expert Hisham Qassem say repeating the mistakes of the past has cost the broadcaster its reputation for life.
Sixteen months after the onset of Egypt’s uprising, Egyptians are still struggling to shed decades of repression and transform their country into a democratic and free society. In a country where 35 per cent of the population is illiterate and relies heavily on the state-run broadcaster for information, a highly politicised, partisan state TV is a major impediment to the democratic process. “The ruling generals who have on several occasions since the revolution turned their guns on peaceful protesters are using State TV as another weapon to kill the revolution,” said 29 year- old activist Waleed Hamdy. They know it is a powerful tool and have used it to further their interests.”
Journalist Shahira Amin resigned from her post as deputy head of state-run Nile TV in February 2011. Read why she resigned from the “propaganda machine” here.
Violent clashes between protesters staging a sit-in outside the Defence Ministry Headquarters in Cairo’s Abbasseya district and unknown assailants killed at least 20 people on Wednesday and left scores of others injured.
The violence began in the early hours of Wednesday when unidentified men in plain clothes attacked the peaceful sit-in —apparently with the aim of dispersing the protesters who had camped out there for several days.
Supporters of Salafist former presidential candidate Hafez Abou Ismail had marched to Abbasseya on Friday evening to protest his exclusion from the presidential race. They were later joined by other activists: mainly liberals and members of the 6 April Movement. They all demanded an end to military rule and a swift handover to a civilian government.
“What started as a peaceful demonstration has turned into a bloodbath,” cried Iman Mohamed, an activist who had joined the sit-in a couple of days earlier. She added that the assailants had fired gun shots and used Molotov cocktails and tear gas. Some of the protesters responded by hurling rocks and stones at the assailants, others engaged in fist fights.
“I saw several men wielding batons and another carrying a sword,” said Haytham Sallam, another protester who had arrived at the scene Wednesday morning.
“People dropped dead right in front of our eyes,” he added.
There was a brief lull in the early morning hours before clashes erupted again at 9am and continued for several hours. Most of the dead had sustained fatal head injuries or had been shot in the head. The attackers had also used bird shots and dozens of injured protesters were receiving treatment at a makeshift field hospital set up at the scene or in the nearby Demerdash Hospital.
Some protesters suspected that the assailants were security force members disguised in plainclothes. “How else would you explain the use of tear gas and bird shots?” quizzed Sallam. Others said the use of “thugs” to break up protests had become “an all-too- familiar tactic “ adopted by some elements in the government so that they would not directly take the blame for the violence themselves.
Military soldiers and riot police set up barricades around the area but most protesters said they had done little to break up the clashes or calm the situation. Seven political parties boycotted a meeting that had been called for Wednesday by the military council as rumours spread that the ruling SCAF was planning to postpone the presidential election scheduled for 23 and 24 May.
To allay concerns the Deputy Head of SCAF, General Sami Annan was quoted by Egyptian state television as saying the military was looking into transferring power to an elected president on 24 May (after the first round of elections) instead of at the end of June as had earlier been planned.
The announcement did little to quell public anger, as several protest marches to Abbasseya were organised later in the day by political parties and activists. Another million-person march has also been called for Friday by the Freedom and Justice Party to express outrage at the authorities’ response to the violence and pile pressure on SCAF to sack the government of Prime Minister Kamal el Ganzouri.
In another development, three presidential candidates have suspended their campaigns in honour of those who died in the latest wave of unrest.
Meanwhile back in Abbasseya, protesters issued fiery warnings to SCAF against any delay in the presidential election. ” If there’s any postponement, it will set off more unrest that would be difficult to contain,” warned activist Dina Nasr.
Journalist Shahira Amin resigned from her post as deputy head of state-run Nile TV in February 2011. Read why she resigned from the “propaganda machine” here.
The detention of an Egyptian human rights lawyer shortly after his arrival in Saudi Arabia last week to perform Umrah (or lesser pilgrimage) has evoked outrage and a wave of anti-Saudi protests in Egypt. The case has brought to light the deep resentment harboured by a sizeable portion of Egypt’s population against the oil-rich kingdom for alleged rights violations practiced by the monarchy against Egyptian migrant workers. It has also caused a rift between Egypt and the ultra-conservative Gulf country — one that has culminated in the withdrawal of the Saudi Ambassador to Egypt.
Scores of protesters gathered outside the Saudi Embassy in Dokki on Tuesday demanding the immediate release of activist and lawyer Ahmed El Gizawi who was tried in absentia and sentenced to one year in prison and 20 lashes for insulting the Saudi monarch. El Gizawi had earlier sued Saudi King Abdalla Bin Abdel Aziz for “the unlawful detention of Egyptian workers in Saudi prisons without charge.” He was arrested on arrival in the Saudi kingdom despite having obtained an entry visa to perform the religious rituals of Umrah.
In a show of support for El Gizawi, the protesters chanted “down with the Saudi family”. They vowed to take their revolution to Medina. Some waved their shoes in the air in a sign of disrespect for the Saudi authorities.
“It is unacceptable that Egyptian authorities are turning a blind eye and allowing Egyptians to continue to be stripped of their dignity after our revolution, ” retorted an angry middle-aged protester.
“If Gizawi is not released in the next few days, we will take matters in our own hands,” threatened another.
Protesters’ cries of “one hundred lashes for the Saudi Ambassador” could be heard several blocks away from the Embassy.
The issue is the subject of a lively debate on social media, which is once again being used by the activists to vent their frustration. This time the anger is directed at the Saudi royal family, not the Egyptian authorities. Facebook posts and tweets on the issue teeter between humorous sarcasm and offensive insults.
“You have recalled the Saudi Ambassador. We are hoping that the next step will be for the Saudis to stop the sweeping tide of Wahhabism exported to us from Saudi Arabia,” noted cyber-activist Yasmin Amin.
“When a Danish cartoon insulted Prophet Mohamed, Saudi officials did not react but when King Abdalla was insulted by an Egyptian lawyer, the Saudi Ambassador in Cairo was recalled to his country,” read another Facebook post.
Many of the activists are sceptical about Saudi accusations that El Gizawi was trying to smuggle narcotic tablets into the country — a serious charge punishable by death in Saudi Arabia. Egyptian Foreign Ministry officials have tried to appease the public, saying they are “in constant contact with Saudi counterparts to diffuse the crisis.”
Since the oil boom in the seventies, millions of Egyptian migrant workers have traveled to the oil- rich country seeking jobs and better lives for themselves and their families. But earning higher incomes has not come without a price. Graphic stories of their maltreatment by Saudi nationals and authorities have for years been reported by the Egyptian press fuelling anger and deepening the divide between the peoples of the two countries (staunch allies under ousted President Hosni Mubarak).
Before last year’s mass uprising in Tahrir Square, Egypt was a popular holiday destination for many Saudis because “Egypt is a freer, more open society and because of its affordable holiday rates,” according to a Gulf tourist who did not want to be named. Many wealthy Gulf holiday-makers frequent Egypt’s nightclubs, gambling casinos and brothels, lavishly spending petro-dollars on alcohol and prostitution because of restrictions on both in their own countries.
In a country where tourism is the number one foreign currency earner and a source of livelihood for millions of Egyptians, Egyptian authorities have for years encouraged tourism from the Gulf turning a blind eye to some of the negative aspects this type of tourism brings, such as the seasonal marriages that are commonplace in Egypt and which are considered a form of human trafficking: Deprived Egyptian families “sell” their daughters in marriage to wealthy Gulf visitors seeking brides who are often a lot younger than their ageing grooms. Many of these elderly husbands abandon their young Egyptian wives after a few brief months (sometimes weeks) returning home to their countries never to be heard of again. In many cases, the brides become pregnant and are left to fend for their children on their own after the disappearance of their “husbands”. Worse still, these child brides are exposed to an increased risk of HIV/AIDs because their husbands practice polygamy.
Liberal Egyptians are also concerned about the growing tide of Wahhabism, a rigid type of Islam exported to Egypt in recent decades from Saudi Arabia. Ultra-conservative Salafi principles like the face veil or nikab for women are a manifestation of this trend, rejected by Egyptian secularists. Many intellectuals and liberals complain that Egypt has been “Saudised” thanks to numerous Saudi-funded satellite channels infiltrating Egypt’s airspace during the Mubarak era. There are increasing suspicions that Saudi Arabia is pouring millions of petro-dollars into Egypt to fund Islamists who want Islamic Sharia law to be the source of all legislation in the country. “The Saudis are ready to do whatever they can to stop our revolution from reaching their shores,” explained Ibrahim el Toukhy, who owns a Red Sea tourist resort.
“We had our revolution to claim Egypt back from the grip of the Saudis, ” said political analyst Emad Gad from AlAhram Center for Political Studies. “Egypt has always been moderate and must remain so.”
In the meantime, the fate of one Egyptian rights activist hangs in the balance.
Journalist Shahira Amin resigned from her post as deputy head of state-run Nile TV in February 2011. Read why she resigned from the “propaganda machine” here.
