Media wars hamper Qatari-Egypt relations
As Qatari and Egyptian media outlets engage in a bitter tug-of-war, diplomatic efforts continue at senior levels to tone down the rhetoric.
CAIRO — Practical steps were recently taken to reach a detente in Egyptian-Qatari relations, but the media have hampered those efforts.
In fact, in what seemed like a positive step, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi over a friendly UN General Assembly lunch, in which Sisi issued statements regarding Qatar and Arab initiatives toward reconciliation.
Moreover, the two presidents exchanged holiday wishes on Eid al-Adha over the phone. However, the Egyptian and Qatari media are preventing this reconciliation from being fruitful. While the Al Jazeera broadcasting network is still waging a war against the Egyptian regime in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian media is issuing its share of insults.
Sisi had warned Egyptian journalists, during a meeting with them, not to attack Gulf women — namely the mother of Qatar’s emir — and this wave subsided for a while. Egyptian TV programs had gone beyond limits in this regard. But several Egyptian journalists still insist on attacking Sheikha Mozah, as they believe this is the strongest response they can give to Sheikh Tamim’s continuing attacks on Egypt, by describing the popular revolution of June 30, 2013, as a military coup. Some Egyptian media have attacked Mozah in sarcastic ways, as they get into her personal life revealing several stories that harm her reputation. One journalist went as far as wishing her to get a disease and go bald.
