Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

Media Professional Hazem Ghorab, Director-General of 'Misr 25' satellite TV channel, reaffirmed that the counter-revolution and individuals ‘harmed’ by the revolution have committed an explicit violation of media honor after the revolution, stressing that some owners of private TV channels were top officials and symbols of Mubarak-era ruling National Democratic Party (now dissolved).

At a conference on media and democratization, at Al-Azhar University, Ghorab said that journalists who used their profession as a weapon against the revolution and against those who participated in the revolution, and were mouthpieces of the Mubarak regime, are now mouthpieces of the counter-revolution, opposing everything pertaining to the real revolution.

Meanwhile, Salah Abdel-Maksoud, Minister of Information, said: "We live now in the Spring of Egyptian media. There is no restriction on opinion or thought, and there is not a single journalist or media worker behind bars. After the revolution, 20 satellite TV channels and 59 newspapers were founded.

"When President Morsi learned that some legal complaints had been filed against certain media workers, he immediately ordered formal withdrawal of those complaints. He also exercised his legislative right and issued his first decision with the power of law to abolish remand in custody for publishing crimes."

The Minister of Information further said, "The people began their march towards freedom of the media by approving a Constitution which allows freedom to found and publish newspapers with simple notification rather than licensing. We have developed a plan to cleanse the laws of any articles that restrict freedoms. The times of government-controlled media are over. State officials are now the servants of the people, not specters of oppression over their heads.

"We have a plan to abolish all 13 articles that allow imprisonment in publishing offenses, in the Egyptian law since 1934 and until the Mubarak regime ouster."

He continued, saying, "Articles 48 and 49 of the new Constitution, which certain people called into question, in fact provide for complete freedom for the media and the press as well as freedom to establish new satellite TV channels and newspapers. This is a great gain media professionals have been dreaming of and has finally been achieved."