Egyptian State TV's Uncritical Coverage Draws Fire

Coverage Type: 

As the world's media have rushed to cover the wave of antigovernment protests sweeping Egypt, the country's state television has focused on a different story. After years of liberalization of the media, Egypt's state television stations quickly dialed back to an earlier era in their coverage of the antigovernment protests.

They provided uncritical coverage of the pronouncements of officials, focused almost exclusively on the views of progovernment demonstrators and alleged a foreign conspiracy -- involving an unlikely grouping of Hamas, Hezbollah and the US -- to bring down Egypt. To critics, the backtracking of the government media drove more Egyptian viewers than usual to switch to foreign-owned stations, such as the Qatar-based al-Jazeera and Saudi-owned Al Arabiya, to get their news. Now, state media appear to be responding to criticism by easing some restrictions on coverage and including more voices. Channel One on Feb 2 gave airtime to popular Egyptian composer Ammar El Sherei, who debated with the station's anchor about its news.


Egyptian State TV's Uncritical Coverage Draws Fire Al Jazeera English gains cachet in USA (USAToday)