CAIRO - Egypt's army-led interim government sacked three top officials from state-run television and radio on Saturday, meeting some of the demands of protesters who mobilised to oust President Hosni Mubarak. A cabinet decree appointed three prominent news anchors to head state television and radio and the news department that serves them. State media had played down the scale of the Egyptian protests that inspired other uprisings across the region. It condemned the demonstrators as agents of Iran and the Lebanese Shi'ite guerrilla group Hizbollah, or simply as vandals. Coverage changed after Mubarak handed power to the military on Feb. 11, though many editors stayed on, irking reformists who want thorough reform. The three new officials have no ties to the former ruling party, according to sources in state TV. Several state TV presenters walked out in protest at biased coverage during the uprising and members of the journalists' union rebelled against their chief, Makram Mohammed Ahmed, who was backed by Mubarak. Abdel Latif Al Menawy, the sacked head of the news department, was physically attacked by employees who worked under him shortly after Mubarak stepped down. The cabinet decree indicated that Al Menawy and the two other sacked officials will work as consultants for state TV and radio. On Wednesday, the government also sacked several state newspaper editors and officials.
