Advanced Television

Nilesat suffers more Jamming

March 17, 2014

By Chris Forrester

An MBC satirical programme, specifically targeting the huge Egyptian audience on MBC’s Misr channel, was again jammed for the second week running. The signal jamming occurred on March 14th during Youssef Bernameg’s popular show, which is broadcast from Cairo.

“I am not accusing anyone, but I am wondering about [Egypt’s] inability to protect its satellite which brings it profit from being jammed for an hour from an unknown source,” said Youssef via his Twitter account after the show was aired.

Youssef’s third season of El-Bernameg resumed February 7th on MBC Misr after being cancelled on Egyptian satellite channel CBC in October. That cancellation is said to have come about because Youssef had mocked the head of the Army (and presidential candidate) Abdel-Fattah el Sisi.  The show has an estimated 8.3 million viewers inside Egypt.

Nilesat says it is investigating why Bassem Youssef’s El-Bernameg show was disrupted. A local group called the ‘Egyptian Cyber Army’ is claiming responsibility for the jamming.

Nilesat has suffered considerable interference in the past, both from outside Egypt as well as within the country and channels from Libya and Syria have been jammed, and BBC Arabic and BBC Persia have also suffered.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, DTH/Satellite, Policy, Regulation