Confusion over Egyptian sat-channel

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NileSat was on Friday accused of shutting down the signals from a London-based Arabic TV channel. “Not us” implies NileSat.

Al-Hawar (logo, left), a somewhat controversial channel that has gained some notoriety over its criticism of the Egyptian government, is the channel in question. The station went off air from NileSat on April 1, “without any explanation,” according to Managing Editor Azzam Al-Tamimi.

"We constantly criticise Egypt and other Arab governments for their failure of policies," Al-Tamimi told the Reuters news agency. "Egypt has so many problems you cannot talk about it without criticising the government."

However, Nilesat’s chairman Amin Bassouni, in an interview with a London-based Arabic newspaper, insisted that he had no knowledge of any decision to ban the channel.

One problem for NileSat is its position in backing a new strategy designed to promote fair play for satellite operators which in the past have been criticised for carrying contentious channels. A newly drafted set of guidelines is designed to see a more rigorous licensing regime come into force, which will see governments having to take greater responsibility in the licensing of such channels.

But Bassouni told Asharq al-Awsat that “anyone who reads the sections of the document will realize that it has not been implemented yet and that it doesn’t possess a mechanism for implementing it. How can this document lead to banning the broadcasting of a television channel that has a binding contract with Nilesat that forces us to broadcast the channel over the specified frequencies?”

Meanwhile, the channel continues to be transmitted on ArabSat, and Al-Hiwar says it is talking to its lawyers.


Source: Rapid TV News