Office of Aljazeera Mubasher Misr Channel Is Raided [press release] on Astini News
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& & In this context, the Egyptian security services raided the office of Aljazeera Mubasher Misr channel in Al-Agouza destrict and seized the broadcasting equipment, as well as having arrested a technical engineer who works for the channel without a permission from the prosecution, claiming that the channel operates without a license.
Following the revolution of 25 January, the licensed Aljazeera news channel which has been working in Egypt for years, took advantage of the atmosphere of freedom guaranteed by the revolution and applied to the official authorities for a license to establish a channel specialized in the Egyptian affairs, which is Aljazeera Mubasher Misr. However, the authorities told them that there was no problem operating with the old licenses until the issuance of a new license for Aljazeera Mubasher Misr. It is worth noting that the licenses applications should be answered in 48 hours time. The authorities which permitted them to operate have not responded to them until now. Four months after the establishment of the new channel, a security forces unit raided the office without producing a judicial permission, seized the broadcasting equipment, and arrested a technical engineer who works for the channel. Simultaneously, a decision was issued to ban publication on the hearing of Mubarak's trial, in which Field Marshal Tantawi, head of the Military Council, was supposed to testify.
& & & & & & & & & & & & & & & && & ANHRI stated that this assault against the headquarters of Aljazeera channel comes in the framework of a condensed security campaign against mass media and freedom of expression, which began by a decision issued on 7 September 2011 in a joint meeting between the Military Council and the Ministers Council, that resorted to cease approving any licenses to any new satellite channel and to urge the investment authority to take the necessary measures with the "seditious channels" as the decision described. Following was the activation of the emergency law and referring a group of the participants in the events of the Israeli embassy to be tried before the State Security Emergency Court, and the last measure being the incident aforementioned. Few months preceding all that was the issuance of legislations criminalizing the right to sit-in and to peacefully protest, which is considered to be an unprecedented retreat for the gains of the Egyptian revolution whose demands were headed by deactivating the emergency law and guaranteeing public freedoms.
"All these disordered procedures and measures that are based on elastic and illegal reasons and applied by the interim authorities everyday the same way the disposed president did, now calls into question the democratic scope that we hoped to expand and persist instead of gradually restricting public freedoms generally, and freedom of expression particularly." Said ANHRI.
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