Anti-Brotherhood shows dominate Egypt's Ramadan TV lineup
During the hot TV season of Ramadan, Egyptian state TV will air several series vilifying the Muslim Brotherhood while glorifying army and police operations against the group.
Egyptian TV series to air during Ramadan, when TV programming is most heavily watched, are expected to express and reinforce the state’s position on the Muslim Brotherhood this year.
The Ramadan drama season, kicking off next April, will feature multiple series that take on extremism and terrorism by the Muslim Brotherhood and the army and police operations against Brotherhood members, all produced by production company United Media Services.
In 2019, Reuters reported that United Media Services appeared to have been set up by the government. Reuters cited a dozen industry and government sources as sharing that "two of the company’s four board members have links to Egyptian General Intelligence, and one of the company’s units was previously headed by the intelligence chief.”
Reuters also quoted prominent film director Khaled Youssef, a former parliamentarian, as saying that the government is “interfering in the content of drama” and had marginalized private production firms to control the industry.
