Al-Sisi said that his country’s media outlets were responsible for the tension that emerged between Cairo and other countries which he did not name.
This came during a speech he delivered on the second day of the” First National Youth Conference”, held at Sharm el-Sheikh in a session that included several participants and media figures such as the former head of the Press Syndicate, Makram M. Ahmad, the journalist Ibrahim Eissa and the talk show presenter Osama Kamal.
Al-Sisi addressed his media figures saying,” You harm Egypt unintentionally, as you are responsible along with us for our relations with many countries (that he didn’t mention) and our relations have undergone many tensions with them because of unconfirmed news.”
This is considered the second time for al-Sisi to criticize the Egyptian media in less than 24 hours in the same conference when he said that the media in his country is “disconnected from reality.”
During the conference’s first session, he said,” the media and talk show programs are disconnected from reality and falsify the people’s conscience on the size of challenges that Egypt is facing.” He addressed the local media saying,” Don’t detach yourself from reality when you tackle one single problem as Education away from the rest of challenges faced by the state and the government.”
It is noteworthy that the talk show programs on private and state-owned satellite channels in Egypt are preoccupied with views supporting the regime, the government, and al-Sisi while it criticizes the regime’s opposition.
In more than one occasion, al-Sisi -who took office in June 2014- stated that he can’t solve Egypt’s chronic crisis without the people and the media support.
Since the ouster of Egypt’s first democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi by a military coup in 2013, Egypt’s relations have deteriorated with many countries that considered Morsi’s ouster as a military coup.
Moreover, Egypt’s relations with Saudi Arabia have witnessed a noticeable tension in the light of the conflicting views between both countries regarding the Syrian and Yemeni files. In addition, tension rises every now and then between Egypt and Ethiopia in the light of Renaissance Dam which is constructed by Addis Ababa on the Blue Nile (one of the main sources of the Nile River) amid Egypt fears that it would have negative repercussions on its water shares.
