This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011.

Sign in the window of KFC on Tahrir Square during 5-day internet shutdown, reads ‘We want Internet’ Photo by Joseph Hill on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Egyptian bloggers have been commenting on the Egyptian regime's use of state-owned television channels and newspapers for their own political purposes. The influence of the media on the people is particularly important in a situation like the one currently unfolding in Egypt where opposing parties have entirely different interests.

Zeinobia writes about mainstream media in Egypt and how it is dealing with the ongoing events there:

In the past few days the mainstream media in Egypt has adopted the official public version of the story of what is happening in the country except very few outlets like Al Shorouk Daily and Daily News Egypt in particular. It is something we understand and we expected as the most of the mainstream media outlets have not dared yet to speak freely against Mubarak…

She continues:

The Egyptian TV is spreading lies about foreign reporters claiming that the country is full of foreign elements including Israeli spies, they claim that these foreign elements are infiltrating our country now. The people in the street are scared and suspicious. You can’t imagine how many foreign journalists or foreign citizens were attacked and harassed in the street due to this claim.

Another Egyptian blogger, The Egyptian Silent Majority [ar], has given more examples of what have been going on in the Egyptian media in the past days:

Fried chicken and foreign agendas

You may be wondering, what is the significance of “KFC eaters”?

According to the Egyptian blogger and writer Ahmed Khaled Tawfik, one phone caller to Egyptian television said that he had witnessed protesters eating from the famous American fried chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), which led him to believe this was proof enough that they were traitors. Tawfik mocks the KFC situation here [ar]:

They claim that protesters have foreign agendas… Here is one! From Gr33nblr

The ‘KFC situation’ and the so-called “foreign agendas” are fast becoming the protesters’ joke of choice. Tawfik wonders further:

Alternative truths

The media have also been playing with the numbers being reported. You can see in the tweets below the differences between the numbers of deaths in protests reported by the Egyptian government, the United Nations and the Al Jazeera television news channel:

@Abdu: Egyptian government says 11 killed in the protests but the UN estimates the number at more than 300. AJ says more than 100

Al Jazeera's coverage has being widely attacked by the Egyptian media. It was even ordered by Egypt's information ministry to shut down its operations in the country last week, and later in the day Al Jazeera's signal to some parts of the Middle East was cut.

Egyptian anchor woman Shahira Amin from state-owned Nile TV resigned in protest over her channel's coverage. Meanwhile, Egyptian blogger Noha Atef, has blamed foreign news channels such as Sky News for sticking too close to Egyptian state television's side of the story:

@NohaAtef: If only @SkyNewsBreak stop quoting #Egypt state TV and look to #Tahrir! Sunday mass is being performed there… yes, on Tharir! #jan25

Once Egypt was back online last week after a 5-day Internet blackout, people were able to use social media to describe events as they really saw them. Videos like the ones showing a police van that slams into protesters in the streets of Cairo and police forces killing an unarmed Egyptian civilian, are being shared online. Nonetheless it is hard to to compete with traditional media in country where about one third of the population is still illiterate.

Hassan Hamed is one of those people who is trying to use his Twitter account to counter claims made by the Egyptian media.

@seksek: أنا حاشتغل الصبح و آتظاهر بالليل لحد ما يرحل، مش المتظاهرين اللي وقفوا حال البلد

@seksek: المتظاهرين ماقطعوش النت والتليفون وماهربوش المساجين ولا حرقوا الأقسام ، اللي بيحرر مابيهدش

@seksek: والناس اللي مش مصدقة يوم 25 و 26 و 27 كانت أيام شغل، وكان فيه مظاهرات، مأوقفش حال البلد إلا النظام بغباوته

This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Protests 2011.