This post is a part of our Special Coverage Egyptians Overthrow Morsi [1]
Al Jazeera has come under fire in Egypt for what many describe as its “biased” reporting during and following the ousting of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi on July 4. The Qatar-based channel is being accused of siding with the Muslim Brotherhood and being its mouthpiece.
After Morsi was removed from office by the Army, Al Jazeera's Live Egypt service, Al Jazeera Mubasher, was immediately taken off air. The network announced [2]:
Al Jazeera's live Egypt service have been taken off air along with several other TV channels.
Reports from our correspondents say this happened during a live broadcast when security forces stormed the building and arrested the presenter, guests and producers.
Two days later, the Downtown Cairo prosecutor issued an arrest warrant [3]for the channel's news director Abdel Fattah Fayed. Fayed is being charged with “threatening public peace and national security through broadcasting incendiary news.” He was detained for two days and then released on bail.
On 8 July, mass resignation of 22 staff members [4] took place over what they claimed to be “coverage that was out of sync with real events in Egypt.” Other reports [5] [ar] say that 26 Egyptian employees have resigned, including four in the main Doha office.
One of the reporters, Wesam Fadhel reportedly resigned in a Facebook post [6] [ar]. The note reads:
I resigned from Al Jazeera today. It's lying openly. They are showing old footage from an empty Tahrir and saying it was taken a short while ago and they are airing the scenes for hours. When I asked Ahmed Abu Al Mahasen for the reason he said that I should mind my own business. Al Jazeera cameras are in Tahrir live now. Sadly I used to work in a place which I thought had credibility but [I now realise] its credibility is based on a despicable political stance.
On Twitter, Elijah Zarwan comments:
@elijahzarwan: [7] Al-Jazeera Egypt staff resign after ‘biased coverage’: Resigning June 1 wld have been courageous http://tinyurl.com/mjculx8
And Nezar AlSayyad adds:
@nezar: Al Jazeera Cable has recently become to Islamists in Egypt what Fox News has been to fundamentalist Republicans in the US for many years.
In another development, Rawya Rageh, Al Jazeera's reporter in Cairo, tweets photographs of threatening flyers dropped outside Al Jazeera's Cairo offices today:
[8]A threatening flyer dropped outside Al Jazeera's office in Cairo. Photograph shared on Twitter by @RawyaRageh
@RawyaRageh [9]: Threatening leaflets dropped near AlJazeera's offices in Cairo – bloodied hand & line ‘lies & other lies’ #Egypt
[10]A lying camera kills a nation reads a flyer thrown outside Al Jazeera office in Cairo. Photograph shared by @RawyaRageh on Twitter
@RawyaRageh: [11] ‘A bullet may kill a person, a lying camera kills a nation’ on flyer dropped near AlJazeera's offices #Egypt
This post is a part of our Special Coverage Egyptians Overthrow Morsi [1]