MP calls for establishment of effective studies centers

CAIRO – 20 February 2018: Member of Parliament Mostafa Bakry said that the establishment of effective studies centers affiliated to a major institution is essential to respond to any flawed foreign report about Egypt.

Bakry added that centers, consisting of specialized experts, researchers and journalists, should refute the allegations and rumors spread abroad about Egypt with clear evidence that should be issued in statements in different languages.

“It is very important to spread globally, and we call on all media outlets to present to the world the specialized official and the popular responses on behalf of Egypt,” he remarked.

He further explained that the center should be more developed and inclusive, and could be affiliated to the State Information Service (SIS) to respond to the entities that are funded by foreign sources and that have political agendas to attack Egypt.

SIS, a governmental entity for official media and state public relations, is responsible for responding to any faulty foreign reports about Egypt. Since it was established in 1954, SIS has played an essential national and international role to elucidate Egypt’s policy in the political, economic, social and cultural fields and its stance toward different issues. In 2012, a decree was issued to transfer the affiliation of SIS from the Ministry of Information to the Presidency.

It is also responsible for transferring the correct information about Egypt to the international public opinion by facilitating the work of international journalists operating in Egypt through its Foreign Press Center and its recently established Cairo Foreign Policy Press Club that publish transparent and correct news about Egypt.

Among the flawed reports that SIS responded to are the British and U.S. media outlets' reports that included misguided information about Egypt, particularly about the country’s fight against terrorism.

On October 21, SIS condemned Reuters and BBC's inaccurate coverage of Al-Wahat incident that took place on October 20 as they didn't resort to the security authorities to get correct and official information.

Moreover, the New York Times' report penned by David Kirkpatrick on January 6 was refuted by the SIS for containing incorrect information. The report claimed that Egypt’s official foreign policy towards Israel and Jerusalem is a fabrication, and that the state is undermining the global consensus regarding the status of Jerusalem through media manipulation. The evidence for this: an alleged, withheld and unverified audio recording; the author failed to give evidence of the identities of the individuals involved in the recording.