Ahmed Moussa slams syndicate after referral to disciplinary board for slander
Journalists Syndicate
 

The Journalists Syndicate issued a statement on Monday revealing that controversial mainstream TV talk show host Ahmed Moussa is being referred to its disciplinary board for a hearing for slanderous sexual claims he made last month against MP and renowned director Khaled Youssef.

During the December 11 episode of his show ‘‘Ala Mas’ouleyety” (My Responsibility), broadcast on the privately owned Sada al-Balad satellite channel, Moussa screened private photos of sexual acts claiming that these were images of Youssef, who had recently won a seat in parliament.

However, Youssef adamantly denied the claims as being baseless and slanderous and moved immediately to file an official complaint against Moussa. Scores of journalists, along with several other figures, also filed a petition to the Journalists Syndicate Council against Moussa’s repeated acts of libel and slander.

The state-owned Middle East News Agency reported that 57 journalists and syndicate members had filed complaints against the notorious TV show host following the controversial episode, on the basis that Moussa was in breach of the syndicate’s code of ethics, violated professional standards and invaded an individual’s privacy.

Late last month, the syndicate council voted unanimously to take disciplinary action against Moussa, after conducting an official investigation. The syndicate’s statement on Monday denounced Moussa’s performance as lacking in professionalism and in the objective ethics of journalism. It added that Moussa had been summoned to explain himself and his claims at two separate hearings at the syndicate, but the TV host failed to show up for either hearing, leading to his referral to the disciplinary board.

In response, Moussa resorted once again to his TV show, now to cast doubt on the political allegiance of the Journalists Syndicate. On Monday, Moussa told his viewers that the syndicate is being “manipulated by a political current, one that is not different from the Muslim Brotherhood.”

This is not the first instance in which Moussa’s credibility and professionalism has been questioned.

A lawsuit was filed against Moussa for slandering opposition activist Shady Ghazali Harb, and in March, the TV host was sentenced to two years imprisonment in addition to a LE30,000 fine. On his show, Moussa had accused Harb of serving as an agent and informer for the United States government. However, Moussa was later acquitted by the North Cairo Criminal Appeals Court in late June.

Moussa’s televised claims against centrist Islamist opposition figure Abdel Moneim Abouel Fottouh resulted in another court sentencing the TV host to one year in prison and a LE10,000 fine for slander. Moussa has since appealed this sentence.

In another embarrassing incident in October, Moussa screened clippings from a helicopter video game while claiming that he was showing his viewers footage of Russian airstrikes in Syria.

More seriously, in September, Moussa made further false claims against public sector employees protesting inside Cairo’s Fustat Garden (one of only two sites where protests are permitted in Cairo). Moussa claimed these public sector employees were Muslim Brotherhood loyalists, and were at Fustat Park with the intention of establishing a politicized opposition protest camp there. In fact, these (largely unpoliticized) employees staged only a one-day protest, and had not brought tents along with them, as Moussa had claimed.

 

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