El Sisi issues presidential decree establishing three regulatory bodies for the media

Three bodies now regulate Egypt’s media industry. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi issued a decree yesterday establishing three bodies to regulate independent and state-owned media, enacting the Media Act parliament had approved back in December, Al Borsa reports. The Supreme Media Council, which will be headed by former Press Syndicate head Makram Mohamed Ahmed, has the authority to ban the dissemination of foreign news for national security reasons and can ban the publication of inflammatory news or news that might be detrimental to the “peace and stability” of the country. It will effectively govern all media activity in Egypt, whether online or print, public or private. The National Press Authority, which will govern and manage all state print news outlets, will be headed by journalism veteran Karam Gabr. The National Media Authority replaces the Egyptian Radio and Television Union, which managed state-owned broadcast media. It will be headed by Hussein Zein, a senior official at Maspero, where he was head of NTN, the "Nile thematic channels."