Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera says the offices of its new Egypt TV channel were raided by authorities on Sunday


The offices of Al Jazeera's new live Egyptian TV channel Mubasher Misr, which launched in the wake of the uprising that toppled its president, were raided by authorities on Sunday, according to the broadcaster.

The raid followed an announcement reportedly made by the Information Ministry last week that there would be a temporary ban on the granting of satellite television licences to recent applicants.

The Ministry was also said to have launched a campaign on Sunday to check the permits of 16 satellite channels which were broadcasting from Egypt.

On the same day, Al Jazeera announced on Twitter that the channel's office had been raided, that a technical engineer had been arrested and that equipment was confiscated.

Broadcasting was reportedly stopped for a short period, before resuming from Al Jazeera’s headquarters in Doha, Qatar.

The outlet was accused of not having a proper licence, but a spokesman for Al Jazeera said the broadcaster approached the relevant authorities before the revolution to seek accreditation.

"Verbally it was promised that accreditation would be given formally and that it was fine to continue broadcasting in the meantime.

"Indeed, Egypt’s information minister Osama Heikal has been a weekly guest on the channel."

The channel said on Twitter that Al Jazeera lawyers called the action to close the channel a "foolish political decision".

The Arabic television network's Cairo office was shut down earlier this year, following the network's coverage of protests in the country.

The network also reported that the bureau was later attacked by "a gang of thugs" and "burned along with all the equipment inside it".
Tags: Click tag to find related articles; click icon for feed

Free daily newsletter

If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).

Related articles