A group of online activists claimed responsibility for scrambling the broadcast of Egypt’s most popular satirical show by Bassem Youssef late Friday.
The “The Symbol of Justice-Egyptian Electronic Army” said it was behind the scramble of MBC Masr’s airing of al-Bernameg, presented by Youssef, a scathing critic of both Islamist politicians, the military and fellow media hosts.
“The group hacked the channel’s server for 10 minutes to attract his (Youssef’s) attention that the frequency of indecent innuendos is not in the show’s interest,” it said on its Facebook page.
“We believe in the freedom of expression, but in a decent way. I personally criticize Sisi and his government, but not through insults,” the administrator said, referring to the defense minister under whom al-Bernameg was banned for the first time from CBC satellite channel before returning to the screen via MBC Masr.
The group urged Bassem to give more attention to the content of the show, accusing him of making up for the poor script with “obscene references.”
The channel had apologized for viewers for the “intentional scramble” which lasted for a few minutes.
The show’s website said viewers in the Arab region were affected by the incident.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
