Dominant media group bans coverage of Civil Democratic Movement

United Media Services, an intelligence-owned conglomerate that dominates the domestic press landscape, issued instructions on Saturday evening to ban the newspapers and TV channels it manages from hosting leading figures from the Civil Democratic Movement, according to a leading member of the company. 

The media group also banned outlets from reporting any news on the group and its meetings in the lead-up to the “national dialogue,” a public consultation process proposed by the president to include representatives from across the country’s political walks of life, said the source, who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity. 

Leaders of parties affiliated with the opposition movement are now blacklisted, said the source, including former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi of the Popular Current Party, Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat of the Reform and Development Party, Ahmed Tantawi of the Karama Party and Akmal Qortam of the Conservative Party.

As per the new instructions, United Media Services-managed outlets have not published any news about the movement since Sunday.

The ban is a result of disapprobation from security services that own United Media Services, said the source, of the content of talks that the Civil Democratic Movement have held as a prologue to the national dialogue. The talks have included Sabbahi mentioning the 2016 transfer of the Tiran and Sanafir islands to Saudi Arabia’s possession.

Security services also disapproved of a comment in which the former Wafd Party leader Al-Sayed al-Badawy compared the upcoming national dialogue to similar dialogues held under the late ousted President Hosni Mubarak, the source said.

Opposition party leaders have criticized the delegation of the national dialogue’s management to the National Training Academy, an institution supervised directly by the president. 

Likewise condemning the role granted to the National Training Academy, Sadat — who is also a member of the National Council for Human Rights and heads his own lobby for the release of political prisoners — issued a Monday statement against assigning the task to “several youth organizations affiliated with and run by certain agencies.”

During the Egyptian Family Iftar event held in late April, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called for a national dialogue that would include “all” political forces and announced the re-formation of the presidential amnesty committee, which is to issue recommendations for the release of detainees or prisoners convicted in political cases.

United Media Services owns a number of prominent TV networks, including ONtv, Al-Hayat, DMC, CBC, Al-Nas and Misr Quran Kareem, in addition to its own drama channels. It also co-owns OnTime Sports, Time Sports and Channel One with the National Broadcasting Authority. In radio, the group owns Nagham FM, Mega FM, On Sport FM, El-Radio 9090 and Shaabi FM.

The group also owns Youm7, Al-Watan, Mubtada, Al-Dostor, Sawt Al-Umma, Ain, Egypt Today, Business Today, Enfrad, and dotmsr.