Region | Egypt
Political motives alleged for Nilesat blocking channels
Critics bristle at state firm's talk of values
- By Duraid Al Baik, Associate Editor
- Published: 00:00 October 23, 2010
Dubai: Nilesat's decision not to air 14 channels, although a difficult one financially, was necessary nonetheless in order to stop the glorification of violence on television, the Egyptian satellite company has said.
The Chairman of the state-owned company, Major General Ahmad Anees, said it was not in the interest of any business to lose customers but for Nilesat the action was obligatory to safeguard the ethics and family values cherished by its wider audience and to ensure the company was not used by terrorists to further their cause.
Warning to stations
He said Nilesat also warned 20 other television channels that they too could be closed down if the owners failed to comply with the conditions set out by the satellite service. Nine out of the 20 are religious channels.
Media observers have argued, however, that the move is not as innocent as it seems. Dr Nabeel Abdul Fattah, head of Al Ahram Centre of Political and Strategic Studies, said Nilesat's action betrayed unease in government circles and was meant to unsettle Islamic parties ahead of the election.
"The upcoming parliamentary election can be seen as a direct reason for the closure of the 12 channels as well as the two which were closed two weeks ago. Out of a total of 14, five of them were promoting Salafist parties and Wahabism law," he said.
A few months ago, Ameen Basiuni, the CEO of Nilesat, was quoted as saying that he had no control over the content of the 444 channels the satellite company was broadcasting to more than 500 million viewers across the world.
But Basiouni has since gone on to say he will not allow the use of Nilesat to undermine values of Egyptian and Arab families.
He pointed out that two channels, Al Hikmah and Al Rahmah, were pulled up for non-payment of rental charges, while another 12 faced action for other reasons, including four for undermining religious values, four for promoting unlicensed medicines and the rest for pornographic content.
Scholar Mohammad Hassan, who owns the Rahmah channel, has denied delaying payment of fees. He says that up until last week when the channel was ordered to close, there had been no complaints from the licensing authority, the Egyptian Media Production City or from Nilesat. He added that rental fees had been paid in advance to Nilesat.
Hassan is now looking for another satellite service to reach out to his audience, which he claims numbers over 20 million. He said he was surprised by the decision, describing it as "biased and discriminate against religious people".
Haitham Za'anfeh, a media researcher and analyst, has accused Nilesat of favouring Shiite channels over Salafists and those that promote the Wahabi school of thought. He pointed out that, out of six religious channels, only one Shiite station, Ahl Al Bait, had been shut. The other five supported popular Sunni parties, he said.
He added that the clampdown on four pornographic channels was only meant to publicly justify Nilesat's decision and that the Egyptian government had bowed to pressure from the US to close the Salafi channels.
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