Meet the press

Meet the dirty face of Egyptian press

It is about the interesting debate between Abdel Halim Kandeel and Karam Gabr on Orbit TV screen in famous "Cairo Today"

P.S: Courtesy of Wael Abbas "Miser Digital"

Both are Journalists , the first is Abdel Halim Kandeel is chief in editor of El-Karma "The dignity " weekly newspaper of the El-Karma Nasserites opposition party. Kandeel is known to be one of Egypt's famous opponents of Mubarak's regime especially after being taken from the street from two years in Ramadan , beaten to death and left naked in the middle of Cairo-Ismailiya road. Kandeel also is from the founders of Kafya movement and he is its spokesperson.Kandeel is the man who wears glasses

The second is Karam Gabr, to say the Chief in editor of Rosa El-Youssef weekly magazine, Rosa is one of Egypt's most important magazines since 1930s ,yet unfortunately since the nationalization of the press it began to lose its neutral patriotic tough especially in the last 10 years in Mubarak's era where it turned to in to the greatest speaker and defender of the regime attacking its enemies in the most disgusting way . Rosa started as a liberal magazine then since Nasser till the last 10 years it turned to be a communist magazine ,then in the last couple of years it turned to be one of the NDP headquarters in Egypt defending the regime ,promoting to it ,spreading lies about its enemies and fostering GM's ideas for the future of Egypt. To say the truth I had never heard of Karam Gabr before as a journalist except when they announced that he was going to be in Charge in Rosa. Anyway Gabr is a regime enthusiast ,all the opponents of the regime and all those who want real democracy and justice are his enemies and the enemies of the state, traitors who are paid from other countries!! He is very rude person he once called the Egyptian Bloggers as Street Kids , also he is very hypocrite to the president and his son in a disgusting way , he is from the the people who that the Ruler is the country and sometimes he is the god "May God forgive me"

The host is the famous Amr Adib in the Orbit channel ,in his famous daily primetime show "Cairo today" covering all important events in Egypt and the Arab world from political,Social ,Economic and religious events. He is very popular but unfortunately not all people watch him , as he is working in a private Cable network with monthly subscription , I don't have the Orbit because I got the Showtime and Art and both show better movies whether western or Arabic. He is the bald guy in the middle. I don't know really the other fourth guy

From two days ago ,Adib was discussing the law concerning "Insulting the President of State" where it is prohibited to insult or even criticize the President in Egypt otherwise the journalist or the writer can either go to jail or pay a large fine. Gabr surely is 100% with that law while Kandeel is 100% against it. Kandeel was chosen I guess because he is known to be Egypt's toughest critics to the president using tough language which I think it is not only appropriate but it is shameful to use it when you describe any human even my enemies , that what Islam orders us where Prophet Mohamed "PBUH" says "The believer is not an abuser or a curser".

Kandeel reached to a great level of hatred towards Mubarak ,already I understand why , beside the terrible rule of Mubarak, Kandeel had a terrifying experience as I referred above ,but I don't know ,I mean the guy wrote that he wants to throw out whenever he sees the picture of Mubarak , that's too much , I don't know ,I mean I am not so fond by Mubarak ,but this is rudeness.He could have written that "I am sick of seeing his pictures" everyday well it is less insulting but it gives the same meaning of boredom of seeing his pictures on a daily if not hourly basis in the official media

On the other hand Karam Gabr is ruder that Kandeel , the easiest thing he says when he is in any confrontation in any media ,he accuses people like Kandeel by treason , that they are paid by other countries to attack Mubarak who is Egypt !!!! It is disgust ing accusation ,hard one especially for people like Kandeel who really love Egypt to the degree that they don't care if they lose their lives to get back its freedom , really I admire Kandeel courage for standing like this against the tyranny of the Egyptian regime to defend our rights . This accusation shows how weak Gabr is, it is also a very old accusation left from the Nasserites grand era of dictatorship where anyone against the regime would be an Agent or a Spy , very naive thinking and very disgusting one !! Also this guy got a complex that he doesn't respect other social classes or certain professions , once calling the Egyptian Bloggers as Street kids and this time making fun of Kandeel calling him an animals' doctor who should go and treat animals in Zoos !!

By the way it seems from watching this part of the debate "It is only part of it ,not the complete one" that Gabr provoked Kandeel that the later lost his temper ,already it seems that Kandeel spoke first for complete 16 minutes and no one interpreted him ,until Gabr started his response on a massive attack him with accusation of treason

I believe any person would be angry and can lose his temper like Kandeel did ,of course to this degree. In fact I see Gabr was deviating from the main topic and concentrating on attacking Kandeel that several times and it is shown in the video Adib tried to remind him to stick with in the main topic.

Gabr accused Kandeel to be agent for Lybia and Iraq ,both countries now became allies to the United States  ,and Kandeel accused Gabr to be spy for the Investigation of National security bureau!! How civilized !!

I don't know how we can speak about democracy and freedom of expression if the dialogues of our intellectuals and journalists will be like this. Hard core insults like "animal" and "jackass" and accusations of treason .It is so sad and this shows that we still have long way in our quest of democracy which implies the respect of the opinion and the other opinion. Really our intellectuals should be taught how to respect each other .Anyway I guess it hard after the regime is using very low disrespectful personalities so how there will be mutual respect between both parties !!

tags: Egypt, Egyptian, Journalist, Journalism, Middle East, TV Show, Misr Digital, You Tube, Politics, Freedom, Democracy, President