Egypt TV host gets jail term for insulting president

Oct 22 (Reuters) - An Egyptian talk-show host faces a four-month jail term after a court convicted him of insulting President Mohamed Mursi, state media reported on Monday.

Tawfiq Okasha, whose show appears on his own channel, can appeal the sentence after paying 100 Egyptian pounds ($16.39) bail, a source in the court in southern Egypt said.

"Mursi is the President of all Egyptians and insulting him is like insulting the whole nation," Nasr El-Din Mahmoud Maghazy, who filed the case against Okasha, told Reuters.

The substance of the offending insult was not immediately available from court sources.

Okasha is known to have close ties to security officials in power during the reign of former longtime leader Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in a popular revolt last year, and for making anti-Islamic diatribes on air.

He faces another lawsuit in the criminal court on accusations of inciting people to kill Mursi.

The prosecutor had ordered Okasha's channel taken off the air but a court on Saturday said it could resume broadcasting.

Okasha had previously said in one of his talk shows that Mursi and his group "deserve to get killed". ($1 = 6.1015 Egyptian pounds) (Writing by Marwa Awad; Editing by Michael Roddy)


This is the guy we funded into power and continue to fund, with US money. We might as well give ahmadinejad a blank check while we're at it. Two sides of the same coin.

Oh and don't forget,

In October 2012, President Morsi participated in prayers with a preacher who requested that Allah "absolve us of our sins, strengthen us, and grant us victory over the infidels. Oh Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters." The Anti-Defamation League said that in a released video of the prayer, Morsi could be seen saying amen to these statements.

reply to post by JackBauer


I'm all for free speech but even if I agree that it is a slippery slope I think that in todays reality some national, cultural or even religious symbols should be granted some protection on the public stage. Not a blank protection but some type of protection against unnecessary abuse that on my view today is generally driven by hate and to cover xenophobic or political attacks. In fact I have never seen anyone I would respect engaging in such type of actions, even when burning another nations flag I at best can fell some emotional empathy with the reasons but at the same time see that as a bad expression of what is intended, a flag represents more than a government (or even the last series of governments).

In many nations some protections and restrictions are to symbols (even public figures) some go above what I think is acceptable but overall I think it is something can be positive, but it all has to do with the context of the use, the purpose...