CAIRO — A private
Egyptian TV
station stopped the airing of the latest episode of a widely popular
political satire program Friday after it came under fire for mocking the
ultranationalist, pro-military fervor gripping the country.
CBC announced the program by Bassem
Youssef, often
compared to U.S. comedian Jon Stewart, would not be shown because the satirist
and his producer violated its editorial policies. The announcement came just
minutes before Youssef's show "El-Bernameg," or "The Program" in Arabic, was to
air Friday night.
A broadcaster read a statement issued by the station's
board of directors saying that Youssef and the producer "insist on continuing to
not commit to the editorial policy" of CBC, which he said are part of the
contract.
The pre-recorded weekly
program returned to air last week after a four-month hiatus that happened as
Egypt's
military toppled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi after massive protests against his
government. Youssef often mocked Morsi on the program, galvanizing public
disenchantment with the leader.
His show last week
strongly mocked the military fever now gripping Egypt, and poked fun at military
chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
Military supporters immediately filed legal complaints
against the show.
CBC, whose programming largely supported the coup,
distanced itself from the program's content. The channel said after the first
show that it supports national sentiment and is "keen on not using phrases and
innuendos that may lead to mocking national sentiment or symbols of the Egyptian
state." It did, however, say at the time it was committed to freedom of
expression. But the statement appeared to lay blame for any criticism of the
show on Youssef and serve as a warning to the satirist.
In the episode that was to be aired Friday, Youssef has
a comeback. He spent a large segment of the program mocking CBC, as well as its
editorial policies, the statement it put out against his last program and its
choice of soap operas, those who watched the pre-recorded episode said. It also
made fun of other media outlets, but hardly mentioned the government or the
military.
Critics of Youssef staged a protest outside the theater
where he was recording his program Wednesday and scuffled with his supporters.
Riot police broke up the crowd.
Egypt's prosecutors
launched investigations into complaints about Youssef's show, including
accusations he disrupted public order and mocked Egypt and its military leaders.
Youssef had been subjected to similar litigation when Morsi was in power.
Morsi's supporters had filed complaints about his program, accusing him of
insulting the president and Islam, leading to him once being briefly
detained.
On Friday, the station's statement said after reviewing
the content of last week's episode, it deemed the program violated its
instructions.
"After the angry reaction following the last episode, we
notified the presenter and producer of the program on the need to abide by the
guidelines in the statement" issued earlier, it said. The station also said that
Youssef violated financial commitments, failed to live to his commitments in the
first season and demanded more money.
The suspension provoked immediate angry reaction, mostly
directed at CBC. One group— the June 30 Front — called for a boycott of the
station, hailing Youssef as a "dreamer of freedom" who puts a smile on the face
of Egyptians. Others criticized the new sense of fear about expressing opinions
in Egypt that run counter to the military.
Mohammed ElBaradei, prominent democracy advocate who
served briefly as vice president in the post-Morsi government, sided with
Youssef and lamented violation of freedom of expression.
"If (freedom of expression) is limited to those we agree
with, it is an empty slogan. The courage is in defending it not repressing.
Salute and appreciation to Youssef," he wrote on his Twitter account.
Youssef had had disputes with the station before. In his
first episode after joining the station at the height of the Morsi rule, Youssef
mocked it for being stacked with former supporters of the regime of Hosni
Mubarak. He also made fun of its claims of having revolutionary credentials.
Youssef angered one of
the station's star broadcasters so much that the broadcaster threatened to take
legal action against him. The station didn't air the following
episode, though the show returned a week later.
Youssef left Egypt to
the United Arab Emirates on Friday hours before the show's suspension. It was
not clear if he was in the Gulf state on a business or private trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment