A media advisor to Egypt's interim president has labelled The Guardian newspaper a "mouthpiece for the counter revolution." Ahmed El-Muslimany said the British daily had "lost a lot of its reputation among Egyptian readers" because of its "anti-30 June revolution" stance, in a statement reported by state news agency MENA on Monday. Protesters took to the streets on 30 June calling for president Mohamed Morsi to resign before the army deposed him on 3 July and announced an interim roadmap. There has been intense debate about whether the move was a military coup or not. Egyptian official discourse insists the move was a popular uprising to pave the way for democracy, while Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood says it was a coup and continues to call for his reinstatement. In the wake of Morsi's ouster, British Prime Minister David Cameron said, "We never support in countries the intervention by the military, but what needs to happen now in Egypt is for democracy to flourish and for a genuine democratic transition to take place." In September, Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy met with his British counterpart William Hague at the UN General Assembly in New York. They discussed bilateral relations and British investment in Egypt. El-Muslimany criticised several headlines in The Guardian, citing an editorial by Jonathan Steele who wrote, "General Sisi and his followers are condemning Egypt to greater turmoil." "The Guardian... does not know anything about what is happening in Egypt," El-Muslimany said. "All its journalistic ability is copying from counter-revolution websites." The newspaper has not officially responded to El-Muslimany's statements. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/84962.aspx
