The Egyptian Television Network is a television service run by the

Egyptian Radio and Television Union The Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU; ar, إتحاد الإذاعة والتلفزيون المصري ''Itteh'ad Al-Edhaa'a wa at-Televezyon al-Mis'ri'') is the public broadcaster of Egypt, operated by the Egyptian government. It is a me ...

. It commenced programming in 1960. Today it has more than three national channels, and several broadcast channels on satellite.

History

Though the decision to start television service was taken earlier by the late

King Farouk Farouk I (; ar, فاروق الأول ''Fārūq al-Awwal''; 11 February 1920 – 18 March 1965) was the tenth ruler of Egypt from the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and the Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 193 ...

, the British-French-Israeli Suez invasion delayed work until late 1959. Egypt then signed a contract with

Radio Corporation of America The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

to provide the country with a television network and the capacity to manufacture sets. Construction of the radio and television center was completed in 1960, and the first Egyptian television broadcast started on July 21, 1960. Broadcast transmission began on July 21, 1960, at 07:00, the Egyptian TV was started with a five-hour-transmission. The transmission began with Qur'anic recitation followed by the opening of the parliament and a speech by President Gamal Abdel Nasser. This was followed by the national anthem, then the news bulletin and finally ended with Qur'anic recitation. Broadcast began from

Maspero television building Maspero ( ar, ماسبيرو ) is the name of the huge building on the bank of the Nile river in Cairo, Egypt. It is the headquarters of the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (formerly the Arab Radio and Television Union, the oldest s ...

whose transmission began in 1960. Ever since, the Egyptian television maintained its service of broadcasting through the different channels which serve different classes of the Egyptian society. The big building that takes its name after the French Egyptologist,

Gaston Maspero Sir Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (23 June 1846 – 30 June 1916) was a French Egyptologist known for popularizing the term "Sea Peoples" in an 1881 paper. Maspero's son, Henri Maspero, became a notable sinologist and scholar of East Asia. ...

, is deemed a distinguished site with its circular shape that receives over 30 thousand individuals daily. Egypt is the first country in the Middle East and Africa to provide TV broadcasting. On August 13, 1970 a new decree established the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (

ERTU The Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU; ar, إتحاد الإذاعة والتلفزيون المصري ''Itteh'ad Al-Edhaa'a wa at-Televezyon al-Mis'ri'') is the public broadcaster of Egypt, operated by the Egyptian government. It is a me ...

) and created four distinct sectors: Radio, Television, Engineering and Finance, each of which had a chairman who reported directly to the

Minister of Information An information minister (also called minister of information) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with information matters; it is often linked with censorship and propaganda. Sometimes the position is given to ...

. After the 1973 war, both television production and transmission facilities were upgraded to color transmission under the

SECAM SECAM, also written SÉCAM (, ''Séquentiel de couleur à mémoire'', French for ''color sequential with memory''), is an analog color television system that was used in France, some parts of Europe and Africa, and Russia. It was one of th ...

system. The Egyptian broadcasting changed from SECAM to

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

in 1992.

Transmission Hours

The Egyptian television began with a six-hour-broadcasting channel; however the broadcasting hours changed to 13 hours/day. Later, in 1961, a second channel was launched, and a third channel was launched in 1962. Thus, the total broadcasting hours of the three channels was 25–30 hours/day. The contents of the shows reflected people's interests at the time. In the early 1980s, the Egyptian TV witnessed development in all domains and the orientation was to activate the media sovereignty principle through engineering and geographic expansion for a state-wide-coverage.

Private channels

The first private Egyptian channel " Dream TV" was established on November 2, 2001. The channel is owned by the Egyptian businessman Ahmed Bahgat. In 2002, another channel "el-Mehwer TV" was established which is now owned by Dr. Hassan Rateb and the Egyptian radio and television union.

Criticism

Since its establishment, Egyptian television has always been regarded as the voice of Egyptian government and the ruling political party. Both the ERTU and the Television sector chairmen are appointed by the

. Terrestrial channels, Egyptian satellite channel and specialized Nile channels are under direct government supervision, operation and ownership. Private channels have a considerable freedom but with some limits. According to a study by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights (CIRS), during

presidential elections A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pr ...

both state-owned television channels and independent channels devoted more time to cover

Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak, (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in t ...

's campaign than for the other nine candidates. Another example for government intervention in private channels was banning the Egyptian famous journalist

Mohamed Hassanein Heikal Mohamed Hassanein Heikal ( ar, محمد حسنين هيكل‎; 23 September 1923 – 17 February 2016) was an Egyptian journalist. For 17 years (1957–1974), he was editor-in-chief of the Cairo newspaper ''Al-Ahram'' and was a commentator on ...

from appearing in Dream TV. Dream aired a lecture Heikal gave at the

American University in Cairo The American University in Cairo (AUC; ar, الجامعة الأمريكية بالقاهرة, Al-Jāmi‘a al-’Amrīkiyya bi-l-Qāhira) is a private research university in Cairo, Egypt. The university offers American-style learning programs ...

in which he commented on speculation surrounding the bequeathing of the presidency in Egypt. This was the last time he appeared on Egyptian TV. According to

Reporters without borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...

2005 report ; Egyptian media ranks 143rd out of 167 countries in freedom of the press.

References

Egyptian Radio and Television
from Egypt state information service.

External links