Last Tuesday afternoon Amr Khaled , the famous Islamic preacher and TV host surprised his followers on his own accounts along his weekly show “Bokra Ahla/Tomorrow is better” ‘s accounts on Facebook and twitter a very important announcement. He will interview for the first time Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei in the Egyptian national TV next Thursday.
Yes that will be the first for Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei to appear on his own country national TV despite according to the protocols as a recipient of the Nile Sash ElBaradei comes after the president before the prime minister. Needless to say Dr. ElBaradei news and interviews were banned in the national TV when he began to criticize the Mubarak regime. I do not recall if the Egyptian TV made an interview with him when he got the Nobel prize but I remember that it did not transfer the ceremony when he got the prize !!
It was good news , promising news as ElBaradei needs more exposure , he appeared on ONTV this week yet it is not enough. He needs to appear with someone like Amr Khaled in order to reach to wider audience regardless of what you think about Khaled. Already Khaled asked his followers to send their questions through Facebook in order to ask the distinguished guest.
Now just before midnight we found out that the interview was cancelled through none other than Dr.Mohamed ElBaradei’s twitter account. “ Policy of censure and vilification continues” the Nobel peace prize winner and the potential presidential candidate commented on the news he broke to his followers worldwide.
The reaction online was more than explosive whether on twitter or Facebook even from those who do not support ElBaradei as a presidential candidate , it was too much that an Egyptian citizen to banned in this way. Some tweeps in anger wonder how a Nobel prize winner is not welcomed in his own country’s TV when a man convicted of planning to assassinate the president was interviewed. “In reference to Aboud El Zoomor’s interview with Lamis El-Hadidy”
Then came the justification of Amr Khaled’s show team on the social networks’ accounts of his show :
The angry supporters planned to have a silent stand in front of the ERTVU building next Thursday in solidarity with Dr. ElBaradei . “There is already a sit in front of the building from homeless angry citizens”
The anger was not only expressed at the virtual cyber world but also the real world as Yosri Fouda expressed his anger on air after knowing the news from twitter while interview Dr. Azami Bashara. It is worth to mention that ElBaradei announced his candidacy to presidency from Yosri Fouda’s show.
Now amazing from two hours ago we found another announcement at Amr Khaled’s show on Facebook and twitter :
We do not know up till now if Dr. ElBaradei is going to appear on his national TV as a citizen before being a presidential candidate next Thursday at 10 PM Cairo local time insh Allah or not but I know that sooner or later insh Allah he will appear on Egyptian TV as an Egyptian citizen.
It is worth to mention that Dr. ElBaradei’s image is so much distorted in the eyes of the working class thanks to the systematic campaigns against him during the Mubarak’s era. Appearing with a man like Khaled in the national TV can help him a lot to correct this image. Dr. ElBaradei will not win by the tweeps and bloggers votes unfortunately politically speaking.
Again we will wait next Thursday to see what is going to happen.
Update @2:58 PM Cairo local time Mohamed ElBaradei tweeted that he was going to appear tomorrow with Amr Khaled on air and that he thanks the Egyptian youth for delivering an important message to the Egyptian TV which is funded by people that there is a revolution in the country.
Yes that will be the first for Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei to appear on his own country national TV despite according to the protocols as a recipient of the Nile Sash ElBaradei comes after the president before the prime minister. Needless to say Dr. ElBaradei news and interviews were banned in the national TV when he began to criticize the Mubarak regime. I do not recall if the Egyptian TV made an interview with him when he got the Nobel prize but I remember that it did not transfer the ceremony when he got the prize !!
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| The interview ad |
Now just before midnight we found out that the interview was cancelled through none other than Dr.Mohamed ElBaradei’s twitter account. “ Policy of censure and vilification continues” the Nobel peace prize winner and the potential presidential candidate commented on the news he broke to his followers worldwide.
The reaction online was more than explosive whether on twitter or Facebook even from those who do not support ElBaradei as a presidential candidate , it was too much that an Egyptian citizen to banned in this way. Some tweeps in anger wonder how a Nobel prize winner is not welcomed in his own country’s TV when a man convicted of planning to assassinate the president was interviewed. “In reference to Aboud El Zoomor’s interview with Lamis El-Hadidy”
Then came the justification of Amr Khaled’s show team on the social networks’ accounts of his show :
Given to the earlier decision issued in the Egyptian TV not to host any of the presidential candidates for the sake of equal opportunities between all candidate , the episode had to be cancelledUnfortunately this justification would have been accepted if it were not for the following reasons:
- ElBaradei has already suspended his presidential campaign for the current time.
- The race has not officially started , all these candidates are potential presidential candidates.
- Already the Egyptian TV hosted three potential presidential candidates in those past 4 weeks starting with Abdullah El-Ashal then Sheikh Hazem Salah Abu Ismail on local Ch.3 then Hamdeen Sabhi was hosted in Good Morning Egypt on Ch.1 and Al Masrya from two days ago. “I have not seen the interview but this will be his second time after the revolution to appear in the same show”
The angry supporters planned to have a silent stand in front of the ERTVU building next Thursday in solidarity with Dr. ElBaradei . “There is already a sit in front of the building from homeless angry citizens”
The anger was not only expressed at the virtual cyber world but also the real world as Yosri Fouda expressed his anger on air after knowing the news from twitter while interview Dr. Azami Bashara. It is worth to mention that ElBaradei announced his candidacy to presidency from Yosri Fouda’s show.
Now amazing from two hours ago we found another announcement at Amr Khaled’s show on Facebook and twitter :
Wait for us on air with Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei for the first time at 10 PM Cairo local time on Ch.2 and Al Masrya !!!It will be more than amazing to revert the decision just in less than 5 hours based on primarily online reactions considering the anger of the Egyptian pro-Elbaradei netizens !!
We do not know up till now if Dr. ElBaradei is going to appear on his national TV as a citizen before being a presidential candidate next Thursday at 10 PM Cairo local time insh Allah or not but I know that sooner or later insh Allah he will appear on Egyptian TV as an Egyptian citizen.
It is worth to mention that Dr. ElBaradei’s image is so much distorted in the eyes of the working class thanks to the systematic campaigns against him during the Mubarak’s era. Appearing with a man like Khaled in the national TV can help him a lot to correct this image. Dr. ElBaradei will not win by the tweeps and bloggers votes unfortunately politically speaking.
Again we will wait next Thursday to see what is going to happen.
Update @2:58 PM Cairo local time Mohamed ElBaradei tweeted that he was going to appear tomorrow with Amr Khaled on air and that he thanks the Egyptian youth for delivering an important message to the Egyptian TV which is funded by people that there is a revolution in the country.
"Dr. ElBaradei will not win by the tweeps and bloggers votes unfortunately politically speaking" tottally agree but not only Dr,ElBaradei but all our demands and our actavitis should move from the narrow tunnel of the web tweets to the wide real life
ReplyDeleteI think ElBaradei has the best chance among other candidates to become Egypt's first democratically elected president. Choosing our next president will be the first real challenging task for our new revolution because it will determine Egypt's outlook in the next 50 years.
ReplyDeleteI was reading an Egyptian website about the prerequisites for our next president. Here is my translation of the 24 prerequisites according to the article;
1- Should not be from Menofiya.
2- Should not use terms, words and phrases like “Don't touch limited income people, Next stage, or other cliches used to be said on the labor day.
3- Should listen everyday to song “Nothing lasts forever”.
4- Doesn't make surprise visits on saturday @11 am and we will be the ones who make surprise visits to him every 3 hours.
5- Doesn't assume that he is the leader of the revolution just because he is the president.
6- Doesn't say “My brothers and sisters”.
7- Issues a ban on the phrase “upon the instructions of the president” and anyone will say this phrase will be prosecuted.
8- Should understand and speak English without cracking his ears.
9- Should realize that we elected him and not his wife, his kids, his uncle, or aunt.
10- Should have a facebook account but refrain from playing farmville and limit his posts to one/day to save the people's time.
11- Should be very humble but not to the point of living in a tent.
12- His wife will take the title “the last lady of Egypt”.
13- Doesn't live in the presidential palace and stays in an apartment under the new rent law.
14- Eats the five piasters bread and drinks from the sink.
15- His suit should not be signed by Versace and he should wear one made by Abou Nesmah.
16- Should watch Al Jazeera channel everyday.
17- Never to claim that he was the one who made the air, ground, or space strike and keep reminding us with it.
18- Doesn't delay the traffic and ride a plane if he wants to go somewhere urgently.
19- Never to sponsor sports or sportsmen, arts or artists, culture or intellectuals and leave those people alone.
20- Doesn't fool us and opens the same project 20 times.
21- Never say the words deplore and condemn.
22- Doesn't pray Eid before it starts and his picture while praying appears in the first edition of Ahram newspaper.
23- Should not like “stability”
24- Once he wins the election and before being sworn, he should buy a genuine tefal chair.
The fact that ElBaradei has yet to appear on national television despite the fact that he has a Nobel Prize and the Collar of the Nile just goes to show how incredibly afraid of him figures from the old regime are. There are definitely still people from the old regime working in the media, and they definitely don't want ElBaradei.
ReplyDeleteIf he does indeed appear with Amr Khaled, this will be amazing for him. ElBaradei lacks charisma and has very low popularity among the average Egyptian. Hopefully, being on the show with Amr Khaled will give him a forum to connect with the both the middle class and working class people.
It's about time that Al Masreya started to bring people who opposed the Mubarak regime from the beginning. Maybe, just maybe, we might now start to see Shabab el Sawra on national television instead of just Ikhwan, old NDP, and people like them.