Yahduth fi Masr’s Sherif Amer covered the House of Representatives’ debate of the Media Act. The MBC host’s guest line-up was composed entirely of (by North Korean standards) press freedom advocates. These include political commentator Mostafa El Fekki (who we otherwise rather like), who wants to resurrect the Ministry of Information.
Talk of the Media Act also dominated Al Hayah Al Youm, where host Lobna Asal interviewed Press Syndicate Secretary General Gamal Abdel Rahim. He told Lobna that the House Media Committee snubbed the syndicate, opting not to invite them to discuss the law. So much for the notion of “national dialogue.” Abdel Rahim called the draft law “unconstitutional” (watch, runtime: 8:25).
“The government wants people to always blame “The Other” for its failures… it wants people to blame importers and traders for their decisions taken without consideration,” said Al Qahera Wel Nas’ Ibrahim Eissa in reference to the government’s flip-flop on poultry tariffs. The talk show host’s weekly Wednesday Debate questioned the economic soundness hiking tariffs on non-essential goods as move to control imports (watch, runtime: 2:30).

Eissa’s best rant this week was also last night: The government needs to stop perpetuating conspiracy theories that the whole world is out to get us (watch, runtime: 34:24).

Amr Adib and Lamees Al Hadidy were off last night.