Suspicious efforts of UAE to control Egypt’s media

The UAE’s ruling regime has continued its suspicious movements in Egypt since supporting the country’s military coup in mid-2013.

Since then, the UAE has sought to control the various joints of Egypt, including the media system, especially as it now controls a large number of satellite channels and media institutions in Egypt.

In an apparent new attempt to control the media system in Egypt, the Dubai Press Club held an extensive media meeting on Monday with the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate President Diaa Rashwan and a group of members of the Syndicate Council at its headquarters in downtown Cairo. Bu Humaid, and a number of UAE media leaders.

Egyptian press sources said, according to the “New Arab” newspaper on its website that “the visit of the UAE delegation to the headquarters of the Journalists Syndicate in Cairo, comes within the control of UAE funds on the Egyptian media system in general, either directly or indirectly, for a number of men Abu Dhabi in the Egyptian media file, stressing that the UAE is now controlling a large number of Egyptian satellite channels and media institutions.

The sources pointed out that the delegation of the “Dubai Press Club” included 22 people, led by two ministers in the UAE government. The sources said that the purpose of the “closed” visit is to exploit the fifth and sixth floors of the union building, which consists of eight floors, especially since the two floors are still on the “red bricks”, since the construction of the armed forces building in 2002.

The UAE has set up a training center on the seventh floor of the syndicate, which was completed and inaugurated last year under the former captain Abdel Mohsen Salama, with the aim of organizing training courses for journalists through specialists after equipping them. The center includes a studio for training in audiovisual media; it was inspected by Sheikh Sultan Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah, after it opened in February.

The sources added that the UAE has pumped millions of dollars to strengthen its media outlets in Egypt in recent years, whether on television or in the press, and funding some news sites, in order to control the keys of public opinion inside Egypt, and defend the Egyptian media to the UAE’s position on the war on Yemen.

The sources pointed out that there are media protocols between the two sides, the stated aim of which is to enhance cooperation in the field of media, which contributes to strengthen ties between the two countries; while the hidden item is to maximize the volume of investments in the field of media, to ensure more control over the Egyptian media.

Member of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate Council, Mohamed Saad Abdel-Hafiz, called for the importance of the Arab press to the freedoms file, as it is one of the most important files at the present time.

In turn, a member of the syndicate council, Ayman Abdel Majeed, said that the development of media is a development for society, which requires educating the journalist within the framework of his community role, wondering during the meeting about the role of media in building public opinion.

The union’s treasurer, Hisham Younis, called for discussing the economic dimension in the press industry, because all the press inputs in Egypt come from abroad, and there is no internal industry for them or Arab investments in this field.

Chairman of Akhbar Al-Yom, a journalist close to the Palestinian Authority, claimed that it was necessary to unify the terminology, claiming that the poor level of journalism in his country is the main reason behind the decline in the profession of journalism.

The UAE’s control of the Egyptian media file is inseparable from its attempts to dominate the real estate market through Emaar Development, which undertakes several projects in strategic and important areas in Egypt, including the bulk of the “Maspero Triangle” area in the Nile Corniche, which is expensive. After the expulsion of the population.

The UAE has also taken the lead in the health sector in Egypt by purchasing a large number of hospitals and private laboratories, complained by doctors and members of the Council of the Medical Syndicate; in addition, Abu Dhabi recently started to expand the construction of private schools and private universities, at the expense of shrinking public education space in Egypt.