Court suspends Salafist TV for defaming actress

Cairo: An Egyptian court Saturday ordered a temporary suspension of a hardline Islamist TV station after one of its show hosts had been convicted of insulting a celebrated actress.

The Administrative Court in Cairo banned the broadcasting of Al Hafez TV, a privately owned Salafist broadcaster, for 30 days after another court last month sentenced Abdullah Badr, a hardline cleric, to a year in prison and a fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds (around Dh13,000) for slandering actress Elham Shahin, in a programme on the station. Badr accused Shahin, an outspoken critic of radicals, of promoting debauchery in her films. The court Saturday barred Badr from appearing on any other TV station for 30 days.

The same court turned down a request by the ruling Muslim Brotherhood to ban a weekly show hosted by popular satirist Bassam Yousuf and take the CBC television on which the programme is broadcast off the air.

The suit had been filed by Mahmoud Hassan, a lawyer from the Brotherhood, accusing Yousuf, of mocking President Mohammad Mursi on his show.

Mursi hails from the Brotherhood, which was outlawed and often oppressed during the 30-year region of the former strongman Hosni Mubarak who was forced to step down in a popular revolt almost two years ago.

The lawsuit is one of a dozen filed by Islamists against TV hosts and journalists for allegedly insulting Mursi, fueling fears in the country about freedom of expression under Islamists’ rule.