Egyptian Prosecutor-General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud submitted an official letter to the ministries of telecommunications, information and the interior on Wednesday ordering that measures be adopted to ban pornographic websites in Egypt based on a 2009 court order to this effect. In May 2009, Egypt's High Administrative Court declared a ban on pornographic websites. The move was based on a lawsuit filed by Islamist lawyer Nezar Ghourab. Reactions varied among Egypt's independent and partisan politicians to Prosecutor-General Abdel Maguid Mahmoud's Wednesday decision. In statements to Al-Ahram's Arabic-language news website, Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan described the decision as "a first step towards establishing a society based on ethics." Mohamed Nour, spokesperson for the Salafist Nour Party, also praised the move. "The administrative court ruling to ban pornographic websites represents a step towards preserving traditional Egyptian values and ethics," he told Al-Ahram, going on to express hope that the ruling would be applied by the relevant government ministries. Nour believes there is no need to fear the decision's potential impact on personal and public freedoms. "Egyptian society is conservative by nature and rejects these websites," he asserted. More secular-minded politicians and activists, meanwhile, slammed the decision. "Those who are preoccupied with banning websites (which they will not be able to block for technical reasons) should be more concerned about the drafting of Egypt's new constitution," Ayman El-Sayad, a liberal journalist and advisor to President Mohamed Morsi, stated on Twitter. Islam Lotfy, a former Muslim Brotherhood member and founder of the moderate-Islamist Egyptian Current Party, likewise criticised the move. "Instead of focussing on pornographic websites, the prosecutor-general should focus his efforts on combating corruption," Lotfy stated on Twitter,
