Egypt State TV Anchor Soha el-Nakash Resigns Over Protest Coverage

CAIRO, Feb 1 (Reuters) - An Egyptian news anchor has resigned from state television after 20 years for what she said was a "lack of ethical standards" in its coverage of Egypt's mass protests calling for the ousting of the president.

Egypt's many state channels played down the protests in the first days, but gave them 24-hour coverage from Friday.

Soha el-Nakash said she presented five programmes for state news channel Nile News on Jan. 26, the second day of the protests, and was dismayed the streets of Cairo were portrayed as calm when in fact thousands of people were demonstrating.

"I have decided I will not go back again," she told Reuters on Tuesday. "I left because the state TV coverage of the protests lacked the minimum level of ethical standards.

"During my breaks, I went to join my colleagues who were gathered around TV screens watching other news channels and we all saw ongoing violent mass protests rallying across Egypt," she said.

Qatar-based satellite channel Al Jazeera was ordered by Egypt's Information Ministry on Sunday to shut down its operations in the country, and later in the day its signal to some parts of the Middle East was cut.

Egypt has often harassed the Qatar-based channel since it began in 1996, setting off a revolution in Arab media in the face of state-controlled information, but it had never before tried to shut down its operations completely.

At least 1 million people rallied across Egypt on Tuesday clamouring for President Hosni Mubarak to give up power. (Reporting by Saif Eldin Hamdan; Writing by Yasmine Saleh;
Editing by Alison Williams)

Copyright 2010 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[Radmilla]

04:03 AM on 02/02/2011

Check out my report from Israel on what Israelis think about the Egypt protests!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMO61r1A4RY

[ResistImperialism]

06:24 PM on 02/02/2011

Thanks, it was nice to hear some different perspectives, aside from the official Israeli government's siding with the dictator.

[Basilio]

12:32 AM on 02/03/2011

Well, it is good to see the different perspectives. Some are sympathetic, and that's good.
I would like to see Israel end the occupation. If it did it wouldn't have to worry about anything.
People need their human rights whether in Egypt or in the West Bank or anywhere in the world.

[michaeljm72]

03:43 AM on 02/02/2011

haha. if only the major anchors at all US media agencies and most of the heads/editors/publishers at the lead newspapers had resigned because of 'the minimul level of ethical standards' after it became totally apparent that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was based entirely on lies and dis-information (which they helped propagate day after day week after week), it's possible we wouldn't be in pickle the US is now in, throughout the entire arba-moslem world

[Lessi Rey]

03:12 AM on 02/02/2011

FAUX Newz anchors, please read this !

[Bruckley]

01:57 AM on 02/02/2011

If your government ever shuts down the media, you know you're in trouble. Not from external enemies, but from your own government.

[ufopp]

11:43 PM on 02/01/2011

20 years? what took her so long?

[Gloria Otting Vestring]

10:56 PM on 02/01/2011

In the states media is all about ratings= money. I have no idea what the deal is in Egypt. So give her the benefit of the doubt. she has ethics.

[DMSmith]

10:33 PM on 02/01/2011

All countries, including ours, must have unbiased and mixed, accurate news available at all times.
I applaud her actions, and I hope others in her industry take note and make use of her talents.
Those who do 'the right thing' on all levels need and have earned our support.

[Asmodean1]

01:05 AM on 02/02/2011

fox news? = All countries, including ours, must have unbiased and mixed, accurate news available at all times.

lol I do not disagree with your post. just the first thing that came to mind was fox news.

[montemalone]

10:10 PM on 02/01/2011

the cents ors are busy tonight

[Patricia Cash]

09:47 PM on 02/01/2011

CNN has been hawking Niles News on their site since the protest started.
Would anyone at Faux Noise walk away for the same reason she did? Ethical Standards?

[DMSmith]

10:35 PM on 02/01/2011

They have each answered your question in advance by agreeing to be there. Sadly, the answer is no.

[Raven Waters]

09:34 PM on 02/01/2011

Faux offers her contract

[montemalone]

10:08 PM on 02/01/2011

I don't think you understood the story.

[M Zahran Sallay]

08:54 PM on 02/01/2011

it's hard to believe, but there are some people, good honest people, who continue to work in state media, peddling whatever party line the authorities tell them to highlight, not because they believe in the government or it's policies but if they didn't, they will be out of a job.

[KsWrangler]

09:42 PM on 02/01/2011

It's amazing how many people sell out out their values in American commercial media for the same reason.

[jorge999]

11:08 PM on 02/01/2011

@KsWrangler
"It's amazing how many people sell out out their values in American commercial media for the same reason."
Well said. I agree.
Too bad more of the public doesn't realize that there is "A narrow band of acceptable topics" on the American Corporate media.

[ninette]

11:50 PM on 02/01/2011

The only thing, jobs are hard to get in Egypt, and are not paid that well. Here the stars of the media fall in line with their corporate masters mostly due to their inflated egos and their greed.

[mogeorge]

07:26 PM on 02/01/2011

She has spent TWENTY YEARS at a state television station and she just now recognized a "lack of ethical standards"? Please. I think, perhaps, she wants to be where the power is.

[DoesItMatter]

10:21 PM on 02/01/2011

20 yrs? Definitely there is more than what meets the eyes, here.

[Bernique]

07:22 PM on 02/01/2011

The cheerleaders at NPR (Mara Liasson are you paying attention) will not learn a thing from this courageous stance.

[cobobs]

08:04 PM on 02/01/2011

Whats with Mara Liasson? I do not believe anything she says.

[Patricia Cash]

09:48 PM on 02/01/2011

One lie after another

[slaxx]

06:41 PM on 02/01/2011

Good for her.

[twinite]

06:24 PM on 02/01/2011

Wow....quitting a job of over 20 years because it's the right thing to do.
If only Faux reporters had the same ethics.........

[SvrWx]

07:09 PM on 02/01/2011

Or MSNBC or Current or NBC/CBS/ABC reporters...it appears that they only quit when their monetary needs aren't met.

[kgb999]

07:19 PM on 02/01/2011

Exactly.

[allskeptics]

07:11 PM on 02/01/2011

yeah, good luck with that!
at faux, they hire them because of their lack of ethics