Al Jazeera accuses Egypt of deliberate jamming
September 4, 2013
By Chris Forrester
Al Jazeera says that Egypt is deliberately jamming its signals, and that the jamming is emanating from four specific sites in and around Cairo. Al Jazeera announced on September 3 that independent experts had determined on the basis of extensive investigation where the jamming was coming from and were confident about both the locations and who is responsible.
Trackers have pinpointed locations east and west of Cairo, and specifically identified military installations as the source of the satellite interference.
A news broadcast by Al Jazeera showed an area on the Cairo-Alexandria road, in the desert to the west of Cairo and a 1.6 km radius area close to Al-Natrom Valley prison. The jamming affected transmission on July 5th from Arabsat.
The other sites were seemingly military installations. One site affected signals on Egypt’s own NileSat craft on July 7th, forcing Al Jazeera to switch frequencies. This interference is ongoing, says Al Jazeera as at September 3rd. Another jamming site was described as being in Heliopolis, a suburb of Cairo, and very close to Airport Road where there are numerous military installations. The final site was said to be from a significant military installation on the Cairo-Suez road, and which affected Arabsat frequencies.