The order came only a few hours before filming started and no reason was given, despite a prior agreement with the company concluded over four weeks ago. The Arab Network for Human Rights Information said that several youth activists with both Egyptian opposition parties and the NDP had received phone calls on Wednesday afternoon telling them that filming for the program, “Eye on Democracy,” had been cancelled. Filming was scheduled for the same day, and the arrangements had been made about a month ago.

The group said that the same thing had happened to some young pro-democracy artists who had been invited on another episode of the same program. They were informed that the filming for the program had been cancelled only four hours before filming and for the same reasons: refusal based on security orders.

The Arab Network for Human Rights quoted blogger and political activist Nora Younes, one of the guests on the cancelled program. “Hurra contacted me from Washington about three weeks ago and asked me to take part in the ‘Eye on Democracy’ program that was to be filmed in Cairo the day before yesterday, August 27,” she said. “Cairo Video Sat, where the show was to be filmed, contacted me to confirm, but four hours before filming a person from the same company called to apologize, saying the filming had been cancelled based on security directives.”

She said that the two segments that had been cancelled focused on young people in Egyptian political parties and their view of democracy and change and how young artists—poets, plastic artists, and writers—are using the tools of their trade to support democracy in Egypt.

“The situation has become truly serious in Egypt,” the Arab Network for Human Rights Information said in a statement. “Satellite stations are between the hammer of the security establishment and the anvil of the laws of Information Minister Anis al-Fiqi, both of which are opposed to freedom of expression and indeed compete to undermine citizens’ right to independent media.”

Gamal Eid, the executive director of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information said, “The security apparatus and the Minister of Information are trying to turn back the clock. The independent media and civil society will not allow Egypt to become a country behind an iron curtain.”

Eid said that the harassment of Hurra is only the latest in a serious of harassments and closures faced by several satellite channels, including al-Baraka, al-Hikma, al-Zawra, and al-Hiwar—all of which have been closed—and the Qatari-based al-Jazeera and now Hurra.

“The security apparatus did not even bother to give a reason for canceling the filming,” Eid said. “And satellite chancels have begun treating such cancellations and censorship as normal and routine. But we insist on our right to media without police censorship that works to serve the citizen, not governments.”

Three of the five biggest media production services companies in Egypt have faced security harassment in recent months. The Cairo News Corporation (CNC) had its equipment confiscated, while Cairo Video Sat and the Arab News Agency have faced extreme censorship and been threatened with the same fate as CNC. Only Swatel and al-Khurafi remain to offer this important service to satellite channels. If they face the same threats or pressure, this will mean a total lack of any direct, objective coverage for satellite channels in Egypt.

Source: www.almesryoon.com

August 30, 2008

By: Ahmed Hassan Bakr