CAIRO: Following a meeting with Pope Shenouda III Monday, Egypt's information minister said he promised not to repeat the “professional mistakes” that occurred in state TV's coverage of the Masepro clashes. Rights groups have criticized state TV's coverage of an Oct. 9 protest which ended with a violent crackdown by the army that left 27 dead and over 300 injured. Groups and observers have accused the state-run TV of inciting sectarian violence against Egypt's Coptic community. Information Minister Osama Heikal, who initially defended the coverage, said the mistakes were the result of a “40-year heritage of corruption.” “I won't allow Egyptian TV to discriminate against citizens,” he added. The minister told reporters he came to pay his condolences to the Pope, not as a religious figure, but as a national symbol. Bishop Yoanas, the Pope's personal secretary, said the minister paid his condolences for the “Maspero martyrs.” The Pope discussed state TV's nonobjective coverage and the minister apologized, saying he formed a committee to investigate the “mistakes,” the Bishop added. A committee formed by the minister said in its report that state TV made “professional mistakes” that compromised its neutrality during the Maspero coverage. The committee said that reports by correspondents were limited to the Armed Forces' version of the events without showing the opinion of the protesters, their representatives or sympathizers. The committee said state TV's coverage highlighted the inexperience of several of its staff and the need to train them. The report also noted the imbalance in the coverage that ignored the victims amongst the protesters, in favor of those announced by the military.
