Last Night’s Talk Shows on GERD, the covid vaccination awareness campaign
It was a quiet night on the airwaves on Wednesday, with no single story capturing the interest of the talking heads.
Nine’s Youssef El Husseini held a phone interview with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi (watch, runtime: 44:01). Asked about religious discourse and extremism, El Sisi spoke of the need for religious reform and new, critical interpretations of Fiqh. While there are constants in religion, some aspects must change to keep pace with the modern world, he said (watch, runtime: 3:58 | 7:31). He also spoke on the issue of human rights in Egypt, and announced the opening of the country’s largest prison complex in the coming weeks (watch, runtime: 6:26).
On a slow day, go for GERD: Egypt’s response to a neutral UN Security Council statement on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) dispute was among the topics discussed on Alaa Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 4:33 | 8:00 | 2:19). We have more on the story in this morning’s Diplomacy section, above.
Either that, or covid: The launch of the health ministry’s “Together, We Are Safe” (Ma’an Natamen) vaccination campaign by PM Mostafa Madbouly got coverage on Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 2:01). The campaign hopes to accelerate the vaccine rollout by raising public awareness of the importance of vaccination and convincing those who are hesitant to get jabbed already.
Also on the airwaves last night: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Executive Director Ghada Waly discussed the UN’s latest Egypt Human Development Report in a phone interview with Al Hayah Al Youm’s Lobna Asal. (watch, runtime: 36:54)