CAIRO: TV anchor Yosri Fouda said Friday that he will indefinitely suspend his ONTV program “Akher Kalam”, confirming rumors that he was pressured not to air Thursday's episode in which he was planning to host outspoken SCAF critic novelist Alaa Al-Aswany. Fouda had apologized Thursday night for cancelling an episode in which he planned to analyze the televised interview of two members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) aired the previous night and hosted by Mona El-Shazly and Ibrahim Eissa on Tahrir TV and Dream TV. The interview had provoked some angry responses from politicians and activists. In a statement published on Facebook, Fouda rectified rumors that the TV station had censored his show. On its official twitter account ONTV said that it backed Fouda's decision, denying rumors of putting him off air. "It is no secret that much of the pre-revolution mentality is still imposed on us, if not worse. I'll stand today as a media practitioner to monitor the marked deterioration in professional media freedom," Fouda wrote. This deterioration, he said, stems from the belief of those who have the upper hand that the media can “deny existing realities or create realities that does not exist.” "That is the main problem and that is the broader context which I refuse to be a part of," he said. He added that within the last few months, there has been a vigorous attempt to retain the essence of a regime that Egyptians toppled because of its corruption. "Those attempts have taken different paths, some inherited and some innovative. But they all meant to put pressure, directly and indirectly, on those who still believe in the noble goals of the revolution and try to respect people and respect themselves to force them to practice self-censorship on what cannot be hidden or beautified," he wrote. Responding to rumors and criticism that ONTV had pressured Fouda to suspend his program, the channel asserted on its Twitter account that “the statement by Fouda explains that he is not confronting the channel but is confronting the hostile climate against media freedom…We totally support him.” ONTV also urged its critics to divert their criticism towards "to those who refuse to give us a free media.” Ahmed Ragab, the producer of the show, told Daily News Egypt in a telephone interview that there have been pressures on the channel as well as on the program's crew. "However, the channel never pressured us to do anything that we don't believe in and they left the final decision to Fouda," he said. Ragab said that Fouda and his crew were working towards one goal, to clear their conscience, and that they were working in total independence from the channel's administration. "The administration kept fighting the pressures with us, until Fouda refused to handle it anymore," he added. Media practitioners and activists have expressed fear of a relapse back to pre-revolution censorship where some public figures were banned from appearing on TV screens. They fear that SCAF is on the same course of quashing media freedom. "SCAF is the ruling authority post-revolution, therefore it is responsible for any threat or pressure on freedom of the media," Al-Aswany told Daily News Egypt in a telephone interview. Al-Aswany said that what happened proves that SCAF is still living in the pre-revolution era. "The storming of Al-Hurra and Al-Jazeera's Cairo offices, and the confiscation of Sout Al-Umma newspaper recently are valid proofs of that," he said. "SCAF has grouped itself with the remnants of the former regime. This is suicide. What happened to Fouda's episode confirms this," Mamdouh Hamza, architect and political activist, wrote on his Twitter account. Presidential candidate, Mohamed ElBaradie also tweeted on the subject. "Suppression of free speech and control of the media is aborting the nascent democracy. Where are we heading?" Yet, Al-Aswany said, he has no fear regarding this kind of suppression. "The truth will always come out and nothing can be hidden nowadays." The real crisis, he says, stems from rumors and people's reluctance to reconsider what goes against their own beliefs.
