Political satire targeted as Bassem Youssef battles charges

Since this article went to print, a presidential spokesperson announced that 600 cases against journalists had been dropped. However, the spokesperson pointed out that charges against Bassem Youssef had been initiated by “ordinary citizens”, and not the president’s office.

The Student Union entered the fray of protests against defamation charges brought against popular TV satirist Bas­sem Youssef last week when it unfurled a provocative banner critical of the govern­ment.

“Dear General Prosecutor, for how much did you sell us to the Muslim Broth­erhood?” read the banner.

Egyptian authorities last week accused Youssef of using his popular weekly TV show El Bernameg (The Program) to insult and defame President Mohamed Morsi and Islam. There have been reports that host network CBC has been threat­ened with having its license revoked if it doesn’t cancel Youssef’s show.

SU President Taher El Moataz Bellah, told The Caravan that the banner they posted last week is not only in solidarity with Youssef but also with all others who are facing similar allegations.

He also stressed that few were aware of the seriousness of the campaign that the Egyptian government launched against all media pundits who are freely express­ing their views; until, that is, Youssef was brought before the Prosecutor General to answer charges.

“I know that the words written on the banner are harsh, but this is not the time where we should be choosing our polite words to express all the hassle going on around us, and these words were taken from a song of a famous singer called Rami Essam; the song was meant to be for the military but now we are singing it for the ruling party,” said El Moataz Bellah.

He also said that he always wanted to engage AUC students in what is happen­ing in their country, stressing on the fact that many of them are living in their own bubble and are not willing to get out of it. He says this banner is a good opportunity to engage students in the political scene since many admire Bassem Youssef.

Professor Mervat Abou Oaf, Chair of the Journalism and Mass Communication department, told The Caravan that she wants to thank the government because “they showed us how credible Youssef is”.

“In the Islamists’ point of view, we will be all defaming Islam not only Bassem Youssef,” Abou Oaf said.

Earlier last week, Youssef went to the public prosecutor to face all the accusa­tions made against him; he was later re­leased on an EGP 15,000 bail.

The Caravan tried to reach Youssef’s team for comment, but they all refused to go on the record explaining that since his bail another accusation was filed against the show.

In an exclusive interview with CNN an­chor Christiane Amanpour Youssef said that he spent five hours of interrogation going through recordings of his shows and explaining the punch lines that some considered to be insulting to Islam. At one point he was going through every line, explaining joke by joke.

“I am proudly Muslim, I am not wor­ried because I have not insulted my reli­gion that I am proud of, it is a great and peaceful religion; there are other people who are claiming that they are represent­ing Islam but actually they are the ones insulting Islam,” Youssef said during the interview.

Youssef told Amanpour that he was not intimidated but exhausted. He further said that he is not going to let this drain him or his team and that they will have fun while doing their job as usual.

He ended his interview by saying that the ruling party is blaming the media for tackling the problems that the gov­ernment should be resolving and that it was using the media as a scapegoat for its failures.

He also said that the government failed to deliver on every single promise made. The people, he said, won’t just sit still, and this explains why street protests have con­tinued.

Meanwhile, the government Invest­ment Authority, which grants licenses to private TV networks, informed the CBC network that it received complaints against El Bernameg for insulting “sym­bols of the nation and prominent figures” and using sexual innuendos and indecent language.

It said these acts violated rules against airing material not conforming with so­ciety’s values and objectivity and warned it would consider revoking the network’s license if “the causes of the violations are not eliminated”.

Youssef’s plight has started to cause a diplomatic stir.

On Monday, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland issued a strongly worded statement on Youssef’s ordeal.

“We have concerns that freedom of ex­pression is being stifled,” Nuland said.

“This, coupled with recent arrest war­rants issued for other political activists, is evidence of a disturbing trend of growing restrictions on freedom of expression.”

On Tuesday, the Brotherhood said in a statement that they received Nuland’s comments with “extreme reservation”.

The statement said that Nuland gave the impression that “the issue is to do with insulting the president when in fact the core of the complaints is to do with contempt for the Muslim faith and ridi­cule of religious practices.”

The statement also said: “If proven, this contempt constitutes a grave breach of the law, customs, social and cultural constants in the Egyptian society.”

It made no mention of Nuland’s com­ment on the slow pace of investigation into cases of attacks against anti-Morsi protesters and reporters of police brutal­ity.

Nuland dismissed the party’s criticism, saying her comments reflected the US government’s position.

“Our point here yesterday was to say that rule of law needs to be applied ap­propriately in all circumstances. It’s the same point that we make with regard to countries around the world. So no, we re­ject the notion that we were interfering,” she said.

Ismail Ali, an anthropology senior, believes that the ordeal Youssef is facing translates into “a complete political disas­ter, because his sarcastic comments were misinterpreted and the ruling party is not accepting the opposing point of view”.