In an anticipated move, the United States President Donald Trump declared last Thursday that it is time to recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The announcement caused outrage among Arab countries including Egypt and its columnists. Additionally, other writers followed in the Sunday newspaper issues the sanctions list issued by the Supreme Media Council (SMC) for media and social media platforms.
Abbas El-Tarabily of the private newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm wondered if the Golan Heights is the only Arab territory which is occupied? Without mentioning the Israeli long-time occupied-Palestinian territories, there are also the two Moroccan cities, Ceuta, and Melilla which are occupied by Spain, the writer said. El-Tarabily also referred to the three UAE islands, Abu Musa, Greater and Lesser Tunbs which he mentioned were occupied by Iran.
Meanwhile, Mohamed Barakat of Al-Akbar daily opined that the reactions and condemnations of Trump’s move are not enough despite its importance, but there is a serious need for positive actions to force the US to withdraw its decision.
Back to Al-Masry Al-Youm, Yasser Abdel-Aziz wrote that SMC has to withdraw the media sanctions list to review and issue it again and to avoid disadvantages that could restrict the freedom of speech and press. Abdel-Aziz noted that the list includes a bunch of professional and legal violations which would affect the media performance in Egypt.
Concurrently, Emad El-Din Hussein, editor-in-chief of Al-Shorouk newspaper, expressed his understanding of the state’s efforts which aimed to fight rumours and lies, however, he said that as the state is conducting its campaign, it is crashing and killing professionals and respectful media outlets.
Hussein added that the sanctions list is largely similar to the Emergency Law which is applied in Egypt since the early 1980s. Such a law is supposed to fight terrorists and extremists, but the most affected categories are the national media platforms and political parties, Hussein argued.