Local Editor
Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of Rai al-Youm, a pan-Arab digital news and opinion website, took to Twitter, condemning Nilesat’s move on Wednesday to take al-Masirah TV off the air.
The Egyptian satellite company stopped broadcasting al-Masirah, accusing the Yemeni television channel of “sectarian programming,” according to Saudi state television Al Arabiya.
“Media empires, which spend billions of dollars, are afraid of a simple channel,” Atwan wrote.
Ibrahim al-Dailami, the director-general of the channel, told IRNA the company’s move signaled that the invaders were prepared to perpetrate more atrocities against the Yemeni nation.
Nilesat and Arabsat, he reminded, had previously targeted the Iran's Arabic-language channel Al Alam, Lebanese channels Al Mayadin and Al Manar, as well as such Yemeni channels as Saba, Yemen, Al Iman, and Al Sahat.
In 2003, Nilesat jammed broadcast of Al Alam and pulled off the plug on Al Manar in 2016.
“The enemies target independent and resistant media,” Dailami said, adding it was the ninth time al-Masirah had been taken off the air. Al-Masirah Mubasher, which broadcasts live, has also been pulled three times so far, he said.
Such moves, in addition to actions taken against the channel’s pages and accounts on social media platforms and messaging applications, “only increase our determination and sacrifices aimed at reflecting the Yemeni nation’s suffering and the heroism of the country’s fighters and soldiers better.”
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
