Saturday, May 16, 2015

Reem Magued’s Show suspended on ONTV after two episodes only

TV host Reem Magued’s new TV show discussing social and feminist issues has been suspended by orders of authorities in Egypt after only two episodes on ONTV.
It started Friday afternoon when news hit the internet that ONTV will suspend the broadcast of the show. The news was confirmed by tweets from ONTV TV host Lilane Dauod.

“Authorities” order the suspension of Reem Magued’s show “Feminine plural”. We would like some “sane” explain to us what is happening and where that would lead us in Egypt.
One of my friends is from Reem’s producers and he confirmed the news to me. At the same time channel Albert Shafik refused to comment during then.
almost all news websites in Egypt confirmed the news unofficially. The head of the TV

Pro-25 January revolution renowned TV host Reem Magued returned back to Television after a long absence. Since July 2013, Reem Magued took a bold decision to suspend her Night news Talk show on ONTV. Reem Magued supports freedoms and 25 January revolution. It is known to everybody. She used to participate in protests against military trials for civilians.

Early May Reem Magued returned back to TV with a new brand TV show discussing feminist issues and highlighting amazing and bright examples of Egyptian women. The TV show is produced by German DW-Arabic service in cooperation with ONTV. The TV show is aired on DW-Arabic and then is re-aired on ONTV.

So far Reem Magued presented two amazing episodes from that show.

Her guest in the first episode was Shahira Mehrez , the famous Egyptian folklorist and researcher. Mehrez spoke about her life and the history of women’s traditional clothes. There was no direct talk about politics except when Shahira Mehrez said in the end of the episode that the 25 January revolution day was the best day in her long life. I can not forget how Mehrez looked when she said that last word.

The guest in the second episode with Al-Masry Al-Youm talented photographer Eman Helal who recorded Egypt’s toughest moments on her camera in the past 4 years. Eman Helal spoke about women photojournalists as well her experience as photojournalist during the 25 January revolution.
Helal also described the toughest moments she witnessed in the dispersal of Pro-Morsi Rabaa sit-in.

Some say that this was the real reason why the show was suspended on ONTV. Nobody should speak about Rabaa massacre on Egyptian TV channels.
I am going to post both episodes below.


Hours after the spread of news , DW issued a statement denouncing the decision to suspend the TV show on ONTV stating the Egyptian authorities’ interfere.

Reem Magued spoke with Mahmoud Saad on Al-Nahar TV channel on Friday stating that she was informed by ONTV administration that the TV show was suspended because of authorities pressures. She did not believe it at first because it is not political focused show then it turned to be a real thing.

Reem Magued : I did not believe it at first

Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb denied that the government had anything to do with the suspension of the TV show. I believe him , simply because there are other authorities in Egypt above him.

Late Friday night ONTV administration issued an official statement claiming that there was no pressure from anyone to suspend airing the show. The statement added that the channel just postponed airing the TV show so it would achieve higher viewership !!

Interestingly Bassem Youssef tweeted about the matter earlier afternoon and predicted that the official explanation would be related to viewership or financial woes.
Reem Magued should stop whining , since when TV shows are suspended in Egypt or channels are forced to suspend shows !!? Certainty there are financial problems or viewership declined or she was compensated or …..looool
Seeing the ads of Reem Magued’’s show on 15 May bridge last week made me think for some time that thee is something going especially it came at the same time press was getting bolder and criticizing the ministry of interior. Little I know , nothing really changed.

It seems to me that the political regime in Egypt is really scared from Reem Magued even if she speaks about feminist issues and showing off Egypt’s strong and successful ladies

Of course there is a strong possibility that the presidency will intervene and the President’s office will pick up the phone to call ONTV telling them that the show will be back.

Personally I highly doubt that this will happen because Reem Magued is not that type of TV hosts.

Feminine Plural : Shahira Mehrez

Feminine plural : Eman Helal

So much for freedom of expression and freedom of media in Egypt.

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