Cairo: Days after the major Islamist lawmakers rammed through Egypt's parliament a bill banning former senior officials in the toppled Mubarak regime from holding public posts and running in elections, propagandists of the former president are apprehensive that their turn is next.

Their worries were fuelled this week when the semi-official newspaper Al Ahram reported that the Muslim Brotherhood, who have the biggest bloc in the parliament, is compiling a list of those propagandists to ban them for the next ten years. The paper, which itself was one of the major pro-Mubarak publications before the former strongman's overthrow more than a year ago, quoted what it termed as well-informed parliamentary sources as saying that the alleged ban would be imposed on former editors, entertainers and TV personalities deemed as involved in corrupting political life under Mubarak.

"This list reflects a hostile position against the freedom of expression," said Abdullah Kamal, an ex-ditor of Rose Al Youssef, and a former member of the upper house of parliament under Mubarak. Kamal added that even before the alleged ban comes into effect, several prominent journalists in the Mubarak era are already barred from writing.

"There are journalists banned from publishing articles in their (state-run) newspapers upon orders from the Shura Council," he said, referring to the upper house of the parliament, which is the nominal owner of the state-run publications. Islamists dominate the two houses of the parliament, elected after Mubarak was ousted in a popular revolt in February last year.

Kamal alleged that the incumbent editors were threatened with sacking if they allowed Mubarak loyalists to write in the state-owned publications. According to Al Ahram, the purported blacklist will include Egypt's top comedian, Adel Imam, who was a friend of Mubarak and his family.

Earlier this year, a Cairo court sentenced Imam to three months in prison on charges of insulting Islam in his films and plays. A court is due to rule on his appeal against the sentence on Tuesday.

Another is the leading comic Talaat Zakaria, who is remembered for his sharp rebuke against pro-democracy protesters on state television few days before Mubarak's toppling. "The reported list does not exist. It is baseless news," said Mohssen Radi, a lawmaker of the Muslim Brotherhood. "The amendment recently introduced to the Law on the Exercise of Political Rights is applied to a limited group of figures from the Mubarak regime.

This group does not include journalists, artists or TV personalities," he told the Ikwan Online, the official site of the Brotherhood. Earlier this week, the parliament passed the law barring former officials, who served as vice president and prime minister or held high posts in the now-disbanded ruling National Democratic Party in Mubarak's last 10 years, from vying in elections and other political rights.

The law, which the government says is unconstitutional, was enacted in response to a presidential bid by Mubarak's deputy Omar Sulaiman. It has yet to be endorsed by the junta to become effective.

"The parliament has no authority over media and art, which we respect. This is a bid to drive a wedge between the parliament and the media," said Radi. Long banned, the Muslim Brotherhood members were the target of frequent crackdown and detention under Mubarak's 30-year rule.