Cairo: The transmission of Egypt’s controversial satire TV show was jammed late Friday for the second week in a row, raising questions over the source of interruption.
Minutes after the latest episode of the weekly show Al Bernamej (The Programme), hosted by widely popular satirist Bassem Yousuf, was aired on the Saudi-owned MBC Misr television, the broadcasting was disrupted for more than one hour. When the broadcaster reran the recorded episode early Saturday, it was jammed again.
Egypt’s state-run NileSat operator said the jamming was “deliberate”, but it did not specify its source.
The episode was later released on YouTube, showing Yousuf, famed as Egypt’s John Stewart, poking fun at the military-backed government over its inconsistent reaction to Ethiopia’s building of a Nile dam anticipated to affect Egypt’s ability to cover its population’s water needs.
He also took fresh jibes at a recent announcement by the army of inventing a system that can allegedly detect and treat Hepatitis C and Aids.
“I don’t accuse anybody for this jamming. But I wonder how the state can’t protect its satellite, which brings it a lot of profits, from one-hour jamming and doesn’t know its source,” he posted in a tweet. Last week, the show was also jammed for a few minutes.
In his new season, Yousuf, a former heart surgeon, has repeatedly mocked the immense popularity of the country’s army chief Abdul Fattah Al Sissi, expected to be the lead contender in the upcoming presidential elections.
Yousuf’s approach has incensed Al Sissi’s backers, some of them, have filed legal complaints against him, accusing him of deriding the army and senior state figures.
In November, the Egyptian privately owned TV station CBC took Yousuf’s show off the air only one week after he started a new season, accusing him of violating its editorial line and contractual obligations.
At the time, Yousuf mocked the nation’s pro-military frenzy and insinuated that the army’s July overthrow of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi was a coup. Al Sissi was the architect of Mursi’s overthrow.
Yousuf has built much of his renown on satirising Mursi’s policy and public behaviour much to the chagrin of Islamists, who filed dozens of legal complaints against the comedian.
Months before the Islamist leader’s toppling, Yousuf was questioned for allegedly defaming Islam and showing disrespect to Mursi. Yousuf was released on bail.
