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Following are excerpts from an interview with Hafez Al-Mirazi, former TV host for Al-Jazeera TV and Al-Arabiya TV, which aired on Dream2 TV on February 22, 2011.
Host: We have with us the Egyptian journalist Hafez Al-Mirazi, who runs the Adham Center for TV Journalism at the AUC, who hosted various well-known shows on different Arab TV channels. Al-Mirazi hosted the Al-Arabiya TV show “Cairo Studio,” which was stopped a week ago, or maybe it was just deactivated, I’m not sure…
Welcome to our show.
Al-Mirazi: Hello, Mona.
Host: You said: “In the next show [tomorrow]” – but it has been two weeks since then…
Al-Mirazi: Yes. This was a daily show, but Al-Arabiya TV decided- since the next show is supposed to be on the political situation in Saudi Arabia- to change the show to a weekly one. I told them that I would not change the topic of the show, so it seems that they have decided to make it a monthly show, maybe even an annual show [Mona laughs]. Nevertheless, the next show will be about Saudi Arabia…
In the previous era, prior to the liberation of the Egyptian media, Al-Jazeera TV or Al-Arabiya TV, for example, were like a sanctuary for Egyptian journalists, who could talk there about many issues, including the situation in Egypt, and analyze them in a way that was not allowed in the Egyptian press, or on the Egyptian TV channels – whether private or government-owned. Even the private TV channels had limits, which TV hosts could not cross, whether they liked it or not.
But after the liberation of the Egyptian media, it is my opinion that there is no longer any justification to work for a media outlet that tells you that you may talk about your country, but not about us.
That’s not all. We are talking about Egypt by way of example. Al-Arabiya TV, after claiming to be reducing its coverage of Egypt, in order to justify changing the daily show to a weekly, and then a monthly, show, sent a team from Dubai, two or three days ago, to present a daily show about Egypt, from the very same studio.
Al-Arabiya TV, as well as Al-Jazeera TV, which is now covering Libya around the clock, both these channels are silent about what is happening in Bahrain. Our people in Bahrain were tortured, and fire was opened on them while they were asleep at 3 am, at the L’ul’ua Circle. These channels remain silent about what is happening, because there seems to be…
Host: And if something even remotely similar were to happen in Qatar or Saudi Arabia, we would definitely not hear a word about it.
Al-Mirazi: Right. Worse still, we are not even talking about something happening in Qatar or Saudi Arabia, [they are silent] even about what is happening in Bahrain. The scenario there is similar to what could have happened at Tahrir Square. You see that these two channels, when it comes to Bahrain, where the majority is oppressed by the ruling minority, exhibit complete silence, or make it do with several images, supporting the government’s narrative, and not what the opposition is talking about.
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