Radio and Television Union members are planning a vigil on Sunday afternoon to demand the dismissal of Information Minister Salah Abdel Maqsoud on the grounds that he manipulates the media to achieve gains for President Mohamed Morsy’s regime, they said in a statement released Thursday night.
The statement called the minister “a sick man with no vision, who does not understand the nature of his job.”
The union employees accused Maqsoud of being unable to maximize resources for the state radio and television, and mismanaging the resources already available.
The quality of media in the country has deteriorated under the minister’s tenure, as the same talk shows always host the same guests and hold discussions favoring a “certain faction,” an allusion to the Muslim Brotherhood to which the minister and most of the Morsy administration belong, the statement continued.
The union members claimed that the minister placed barriers outside his office so that the employees cannot talk to him, and that he uses “stick and carrot” policies with them.
The statement also accused the leaders of the union of not responding to employees when they were demonstrating three days ago to demanded the cancellation of a decision to reduce their incentives by 60 percent.
The minister is currently facing potential legal action after responding to a female journalist’s question about freedom of expression in a sexually suggestive manner.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
