Egypt’s State Media Turns on Mubarak

Top State-Run Newspaper Lashes Govt, Praises Protesters

by Jason Ditz, Antiwar.com, February 07, 2011

 

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After 30 years of championing President Hosni Mubarak on all issues, one of the strongest voices in Egypt’s state-run media, the al-Ahram newspaper, has led its Monday issue with a front page editorial reversing that stance.

The editorial, written by editor-in-chief Osama Saraya, cheers the “nobility” of the growing protest movement against Mubarak and lambastes the dictator for refusing to make serious changes.

The article didn’t explicitly call for President Mubarak to resign but the demands for reform spark a major shift from the paper, Egypt’s largest and most respected, and Saraya’s history as an advocate who can spin anything Mubarak does as heroic appears over.

Indeed, the entire state media aparatus appears to have noticed that their effort to gloss over the uprising is dramatically damaging their credibility, and all are starting to reverse course and add at least some coverage of the only thing going on in Egypt that really matters to most.