Q: How and when did you leave Egypt TV?
Saad: When the revolution started on January 25. On the 26th I was banned from national television because the regime wanted me to stand by [them] and downplay the revolution — to say it’s just “chaos and riots.” I refused and was banned from being on [national] television.

Q: Who banned you?
Saad: The minister of information. I was put on an “indefinite leave of abscence”. I was later asked to go back after the regime was gone. [I went back] but then nothing had really changed, so I left Egyptian television on February 23, after I refused to meet the prime minister [at the time]. Then I joined Al Tahrir TV.

Q: When did you join Al Tahrir TV channel?
Saad: In April and then the show [Al-Midan] came on air in the beginning of May.

Q: And why did you leave?
Saad: There was an agreement with the partners, a verbal agreement. When I joined the channel, I wanted to help them establish a new revolutionary channel. It was this idea that I believed in. If they were going to sell it to anyone else, a businessman, I was going to leave because it would not be the project that we had agreed on. So after six months, during Ramadan, we heard that they were selling the channel, [hence] there was a disagreement. They sold it to two businessmen, Labish Hena and Seitofi.

Q: So for you, a true revolutionary channel has to be independently financed?
Saad: This is the project I had agreed to do. I agreed to join the project on these terms.

Q: How did Al Nahar channel come about? 
Saad: I joined them in early November. [The channel] was established right after the revolution, among other channels, which [is a bit] odd when you consider the larger economic situation in the country. These channels are very costly. Tahrir TV, Al Nahar, CBC, Masry 25; although they all started after the revolution, it’s a pity they are not all [true] revolutionary channels.

Q: Why did all these channels emerge now?
Saad: That’s the question. Some of them, if not most, are not revolutionary. After the revolution, what should happen is all the new channels should support the revolution. What I expected and hoped for was that all these new channels would help rebuild Egypt and speak for the revolution.

Q: Why has this not happened?
Saad: The true revolutionaries do not have enough funding to launch new channels — political channels. [When] the new parliament [is in place] and [members] of the old regime make it into parliament and they have access to the media, this can become a threat to the revolution.

Q: How so?
Saad: Most of the old media was already working for the regime. But we hoped for something different after the revolution. So when you put them together — the old and the new — the revolutionary forces in the media are not as they are supposed to be or as we hoped for.

Q: Why are they not as you hoped?
Saad: In the coming period, the media won’t really express or be the voice for the revolution. There is a question mark about the people ruling the country being with the revolution.

Q: What about the pro-revolutionary channels that do exist?
Saad: Not all the media, but most of it, are not as they are supposed to be. If you compare the revolutionary channels in the media with the others — the ratio is not correct. Also the channels that support the revolution, their financial situation is not as [successful] as the other channels. It’s hard for them to compete.

Q: So what percentage of the new channels would you say support the revolution?
Saad: Maybe a quarter. Also other channels have certain programs that express the revolutionary content, but not [all of the] channel [programming].

Q: And what do you hope to accomplish in your new role at Al Nahar? Are they independently financed?
Saad: Al Nahar knows my approach, which is better because they know and agree the programming is going to be free and I will be responsible for whatever I do on the show. And this is what I care the most about. It’s very important that it’s independent, so that I am free to say whatever I want because there may be a certain agenda that you may or may not agree with.

Q: Would you say most of the new channels have this independence to express whatever they want?
Saad: A minority do. The financing for most of the channels out there follows a certain direction. It helps the interests of those who are financing it, which makes sense.

Q: Do you expect any new media laws from the Parliament that will affect the media sphere?
Saad: I do not see new laws that would attack the freedom of speech coming from the new Parliament, but it might be depressing to the people. Some people in Egypt are concerned that those who make it into Parliament are not really what the revolutionaries aimed for because the people who have the power and the money are either the old regime or the Islamists. The revolutionaries don’t have the power or the money. This is why the outcome of parliamentary elections may not meet the people’s expectations.

Q: How has the permitting process changed for the new channels?
Saad: In the beginning [of the year] it was easier. But lately, after the Maspero events, the Ministry of Information and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) decided not to give any new permits for TV channels. After the revolution, there was freedom of speech everywhere, but then the people running the country realized that it was getting out of hand, so they took control again. So they stopped giving any new permits for the channels.

Q: Are you worried about this development long term?
Saad: Of course. It makes me pessimistic because with the revolution, there should be more space given to freedom of speech.

Q: And do you feel any censorship pressure at your channel now? Are there topics you cannot
discuss?
Saad: No, it’s in my contract. I am responsible for whatever is on my show, at my own risk. bt