Bassem Youssef's funny brand of political irreverence brought light-heartedness to the nation at a time of arduous transition. In the process, Youssef has acquired many enemies, some in powerful places. He was sued, threatened and interrogated. But this only added to the popularity of Al-Bernameg (The Programme), whose broadcast was mysteriously jammed for its entire duration this week. Episode 6 of Season 3 of The Programme, was disrupted while being aired on MBC Misr. Bloggers reacting to the incident suspected the army of this offence. But some, analysing the circumstances of the action, pointed fingers at the channel itself. Although the show itself was jammed, the commercials in the middle went on without a hitch. In the episode, Youssef made fun of some talk show hosts, discussed the Ethiopian dam, and interviewed the Dostour Party's new leader, Hala Shukrallah. Apparently puzzled by the jamming, Youssef tweeted that this was “a very cheap thing”. He also wondered why the government cannot offer protection to broadcasts on its own satellite service. Some of Youssef's fans blamed the current regime, or the army, which they feel has no sense of humour and little regard for free speech. At one point, the hitherto unknown Egyptian Cyber Army claimed responsibility for the jamming. No independent confirmation of the identity or the group or its backers has been forthcoming. The admin of the “Egyptian Cyber Army” Facebook page, agreed to be interviewed online. “We started our activity in reaction to the Muslim Brotherhood's actions. The MB used violence against the Egyptian people and instigated violence. There are also other electronic militia that shuts down any revolutionary page by means of filing many reports against it,” the admin said. Asking the admin how his group goes about this hacking job, the answer that came online was, “We do not use equipment to jam channels,” the admin explained. “We cannot afford such advanced equipment, which is usually owned by the government and we are not part of the government. But we rely on certain programmes available on the internet which can be used to hack into the transmission equipment and jam it. We hack into the transmission equipment owned by the channel then we jam the satellite which retransmits the images. This is what we did to jam The Programme.” Why jam this innocuous show, and leave Al-Jazeera's more hostile brand of propaganda? “Our problem with Youssef is not political, but his use of sexual innuendo and foul language to ridicule the symbols of the state, such as Abdel-Nasser and others. So that you know, we are not all for the nomination of [Abdel-Fattah] Al-Sisi but rather support Hamdeen [Sabahi].” The admin then went on to discuss the composition of the group: “We are about 130 young men aged between 18 and 40. If we get arrested, we will remain proud of what we've done. We will keep harassing Bassem Youssef. But we also intend to hack into 15 other.” Experts are not convinced that the Egyptian Cyber Army is real. Some are convinced this kind of jamming could only come from inside the channel itself. “The frequency of any channel exists within a frequency range,” said film director and producer George Fahmy. “There is always more than one station in the frequency range, four stations or so at least. The MBC Misr frequency is within the same frequency range as Rotana 2, Art 1, Dream, and other channels. And yet, while MBC Misr was going off the air, the rest of the channels kept broadcasting as normal.” The whole thing was most likely a publicity stint, Fahmy remarked. “Take my word for it. This jamming incident was an inside job. I believe what happened was nothing but a publicity stunt designed to lure viewers and advertisers.” TV director Khaled Shabana agrees with this assessment. He doesn't see any reason for a state authority, or even a hacker, to jam a 90-minute show but leave the commercials intact. MBC Misr has a lucrative contract with the web site shahid.net, he explained. If people cannot watch the programme live, more will turn to the website to see it, and this will boost viewership and ultimately advertising, Shabana pointed out. According to Shabana, if the state wanted to jam a programme, it would jam it in its entirety, not spare the commercials. Shabana explained how the jamming may have happened. The TV channel transmits its broadcast to the satellite, which sends it to headquarters in Dubai, which incorporates it into its programming and airs it back to viewers through the same satellite. At no stage in this process can anyone jam the signal without the benefit of highly sophisticated equipment. Shabana ruled out the possibility that the alleged hackers of the Egyptian Cyber Army could pull of such a job. “Jamming satellite channels is difficult and requires special and expensive equipment. The signals are digitalised and are transmitted via very high frequencies, so only the government and large corporations can do it.” For his part TV presenter Youssef Al-Hosseini ruled out the army or the government as a potential culprit. “Some say that officials jammed Bassem Youssef. But would it not make more sense to jam Al-Jazeera, which is actually threatening our national security?” he tweeted. The government, he said, is not “stupid” enough to hand Bassem Youssef free publicity. MBC Misr, now suspected of jamming its own broadcast for financial game, was cryptic. “The determination of the cause of the jamming will take some time,” the NileSat said in a statement. It also promised to identify the source of the interruption of service as soon as it is located “in the next few days.”
