Advanced Television

Egypt news bosses face court

October 5, 2016

By Chris Forrester

Last month, senior news channel officials from the Egyptian Radio & Television Union (ERTU) mistakenly put on air an old interview of the nation’s President El-Sisi, instead of an up-to-date interview that the president was giving to the USA’s PBS channel to coincide with his appearance before the United Nations General Assembly. The US interview was hosted by Charlie Rose.

October 4th saw the head of ERTU’s news division, Mostafa Shehata appear in front of a disciplinary court in Cairo. Alongside Shehata were other senior staffers from ERTU’s news department, the news bulletin department, the correspondents’ department and the general department for news exchange, responsible for the electronic ingest of material from the US.

Shehata was fired immediately after the debacle.

“The Radio and Television Union apologises for the grave mistake made by the news department,” the ERTU said in a statement. The prosecution released statement saying that the airing of the wrong interview “negatively affected the state’s prestige domestically and internationally and enraged Egyptians at home and abroad,” and urged speedy action against those responsible.

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