Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

The Arab Network For Human Rights Information condemned the banning of the Al Hiwar space channel on the Nile Sat by the Egyptian state-owned Nile Sat administration. The channel was banned without any explanations on April1, 2008. This comes as an activation of the document of " Principles for Organizing Satellite Radio and TV Broadcasting in the Arab Region" approved by the Arab information ministers last February.

Banning the Al Hiwar space channel on the Nile Sat contradicts all professional values and criteria. It also reveals the wrathful attitude of the Egyptian government towards trustful and serious media sounds that aim at communicating the Arab viewers whatever the sounds are; newspapers, TV channels or even reviews in a college.
 
This decision reveals the false allegations of the Arab information ministers who said that the document would not harm the serious channels. The Al Hiwar channel started in the middle of 2006, and was known for its serious and objective handling of public issues. "We knew about the wrathful censorship, even hidden, on some space channels specially the Egyptian ones", said Gamal Eid, the executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. "Banning the Al Hiwar space channel is a cruel start of the Arab information ministers" document. Only in the Arab world, the dwarf authorities such as information ministers can control TV channels. It is a mere Arabic scandal." Added Gamal Eid.

The Network urged all expression freedom defenders to stand against and reveal this police-like censorship exercised by those ministers and their governments and to advocate the right of the viewers to watch serious and trustful channels working on handling public issues not on flirting tyrant governors.