Cairo: Egyptian state television has sacked an anti-government anchor after she fled the country and joined a broadcaster sympathetic with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, an official said on Tuesday.
Head of provincial channels at Egyptian television Naela Farouq said that Azaa Al Hennawy, a host at the state-run Cairo station, has been dismissed because she is working for Al Sharq TV based in Turkey.
“Al Hennawy is working without a licence at an agency, which is hostile to Egypt in violation of regulations,” Farouq added in media remarks.
Al Sharq is chaired by dissident Egyptian politician Ayman Nour, who left Egypt after the army’s toppling of president Mohammad Mursi, a Brotherhood official, following huge street protests against the Islamist leader’s rule.
In recent years, Al Hennawy had been interrogated and suspended several times for making anti-government remarks on air.
Media authorities have accused her of violating professional standards and expressing her personal views in her programme.
Last year, a disciplinarian court ordered Al Hennawy be suspended from work for four months on charges of insulting President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi in a 2016 episode of her TV programme and violating her job duties.
Last October, she was referred to an investigation again after she had an interview with the Qatari news television Al Jazeera, regarded as a mouthpiece of the Brotherhood.
Al Hennawy left Egypt for Turkey last month. Afterwards, Nour announced in a tweet that Al Hennawy will host a programme on Al Sharq TV.
Qatar and Turkey are staunch backers of the Brotherhood, which is designated as a terrorist organisation in Egypt.
