|
Egyptian TV presenter, chief editor to go on trial
CAIRO: An Egyptian court has ordered a popular TV presenter and a chief editor of an independent daily to face trial for insulting the country's newly elected president. The Cairo court charged controversial TV presenter Tawfiq Okasha with suggesting the killing of President Muhammad Mursi during his nightly TV show. The court also referred the chief editor of El-Dustour daily, Islam Afifi, for his newspaper's harsh criticism of Mursi.
Last week, members of the upper house of Parliament chose new editors for state-owned newspapers despite demands for a vote by newspaper staff or an independent media body. Around half the seats in the upper house of Parliament are controlled by Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood group. The editors were appointed by members of the upper house, in the same manner as under former President Hosni Mubarak, prompting the Egyptian Journalist's Syndicate to condemn the selection process. Hundreds of journalists came out to the streets to protest. Meanwhile, Okasha's network El-Faraeen, or the Pharaohs, was ordered off the air after he warned Mursi not to attend the funeral of 16 Egyptian soldiers killed in a militant attack this month in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. He said the "spilling" of Mursi's blood would be permissible and alleged the Brotherhood was behind the attack close to the border with Israel. Okasha is popular both for his scathing criticism of the Brotherhood and also of the youth groups and activists behind last year's uprising that toppled Mubarak. Okasha was a member of Mubarak's ruling party before it was dissolved. Nearly a month after he was sworn-in, Mursi met with media chiefs and promised there would be no restrictions on press freedoms. Under Mubarak, reporters were jailed and fined for writing about his health, for example. Mursi's spokesman Yasser Ali told reporters later Thursday that the president had nothing to do with the court's decision on the two media figures and that he continues to support press freedoms.
Posted by: Steve White 2012-08-19 |
||
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=350442 |