Al Jazeera Demand End to Egyptian Government Interference

Distributed by the www.ArabAmericanNewsWire.com

Al Jazeera Demand End to Egyptian

Government Interference

Doha, Qatar: January 28, 2011: The Al Jazeera Network has called for the Egyptian authorities to allow them to freely cover the events currently unfolding in the country.

 The global satellite network has reported that their live channel Al Jazeera Mubasher was this morning removed from the Nilesat platform from which the public receive television channels. This was after the channel was originally moved to different frequencies.

 In addition, the Network's bureau in Cairo had its telephone landlines cut, and its main Arabic news channel has also faced signal interference.

 Commenting, Ayman Jaballah, the Managing Director of Al Jazeera Mubasher said:

 "We call upon the Egyptian authorities to uphold the right of the media to report news freely. There should be no impediments or restrictions in front of a free press."

 Al Jazeera's coverage of anti-government demonstrations has previously faced censure from regimes, most notably recently in Tunisia where the channel was banned by the former president. Despite this, Al Jazeera continued to report on the uprisings, to widespread acclaim.

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