TV host investigates media outlets singled out by Sisi

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's singling out of "hostile" media oulets in a meeting with senior journalists and TV hosts has continued to stir reactions. 

In the meeting held on Sunday, Sisi said that Qatar, Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood are setting up media outlets using millions of dollars with the aim of spreading chaos around the region. He pointed to the Misr Alan channel, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper, the Media Limited Company and Qulture as examples of this plot. 

In his show broadcast on the privately owned ONtv channel, host Yosri Fouda said that while investigating the outlets, he managed to find information on some of the figures running them.

According to Fouda, Media Limited's actual name is Fadaat Media Limited, which is a company registered in London on May 30, 2013, just a month before the June 30 protesters that led to the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood erupted.

The company's main activity, Fouda said, is issuing newspapers, including Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, which was also referenced by Sisi. It owners include Sabah al-Mokhtar, a British-Irawi lawyer, Ghanem al-Kawary, a Qatari businessman, and Moayed al-Deeb, a Jordanian manager. The company's assets origins are unknown, Fouda said. 

Since its inception earlier this year, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed has been associated with columnist and former Israeli Knesset member Azmi Bishara and Egyptian columnist Wael Qandil, who has been sidelined from local Egyptian media for his anti-military views.

Fouda then moved on to Misr Alan channel, which is an evolution of the Muslim Brotherhood Misr 25 channel that was officially closed in Egypt. The channel's crew then moved to the Rabea al-Adaweya sit-in, where it broadcast live from there under the name of Ahrar Misr, then moved to Lebanon and on to Turkey after the sit-in dispersal. 

Emad Eddin Hussein, the chief editor of privately owned Al-Shorouk newspaper, who attended the meeting, reported that Sisi said, "Don't think you will leave me carry this burden on my own. You will carry it with me. The country won't get on its feet with the government or with Sisi on his own."

Sisi said that some of these media outlets, that are part of an alleged plan to destroy Egypt, pay their writers as much as US$2000 a month to work on cultural stories. 

Besides naming the media outlets, Sisi also mentioned Human Rights Watch, which had just published a report about the security's dispersal of the Rabea al-Adaweya sit-in last year, which was described as "likely a crime against humanity." Sisi asked journalists to think carefully about the organization, which, according to him, is funded by American businessman and which has protected America's interests all along. 

Several freedom of expression defenders and human rights organizations have expressed concerns over the level of media scrutiny exhibited by Sisi’s statements, especially given his singling out of certain outlets.

In the meeting, Diaa Rashwan, the head of the Journalists Syndicate, said that next week, there will be meetings regarding the formation of regulatory authorities for the media in accordance with the Constitution. 

Meanwhile, in an interview with the state-owned Al-Ahram, Minister of Investments Ashraf Salman had said that there is a plan to issue accreditation for journalists covering the presidency beat, as well as government institutions, in order to guarantee the credibility of any content produced about these institutions. This registration will be issued on a yearly basis, Salman said, after a training program is offered to journalists on how to cover news about state institutions. 

Rashwan had objected to the statements of the minister, saying that they represent a restriction on press freedoms. According to the state-owned Middle East News Agency, Rashwan said that Salman's statements contradict those of Sisi during his meeting with journalists, adding that issuing accreditation should be the responsibility of the syndicate.