Media, police cat-mouse relationship in Ramadan dramas

CAIRO –30 May 2017: A number of Ramadan series this year tackles media people issues, the atmosphere of their work, their relationship with the police officers and how the security forces in general deal with the media.

Most of Ramadan Soap operas always show a conflict between drama makers, media people and the satellite channels. The series also usually presents hackers trying to capture and obtain information without rules.

The series ‘’Wadea Amny” (Security Situation) starring actor Amr Saad for example shows that the Ministry of Interior deal with the media in an inappropriate manner. This TV series looks into a struggle between the media and the Ministry of Interior. Wadea Amny starts with a terrorist named Hassan performed by the actor Amr Saad, who bombed a hospital, preventing all from getting out of the building. Hassan, the terrorist, has two demands; the first is to have media coverage of his attack and $50 million. The media people came to fulfil the terrorist demand, but the security forces dealt with them badly. There was a scene from the series, where the police officer took a camera violently from a photographer and deleted all the photos.

In addition, the series is portraying the severe conflict and competition between broadcasters. This was crystal clear from the scene when two TV presenters arrived to cover the incident of the hospital bombings and each broadcaster wanted to have the first exclusive coverage. The first broadcaster named, Sanaa el-Masry, performed by the Egyptian actress Emy Salem, who competes severely with the other broadcaster on which of them will going to perform the first interview with the Police General. The series shows relationship between Masry and the Police General. Salem exploits this relationship to take a promise from him to be the only presenter to interview him first from now on.

In the series ‘’El Hala Geem’’ (The Status is C) we see the star Ahmed Zaher performing the role of a police officer named Hazem who criticizes the media and confirms that the media is the reason behind all the problems because of its wrong practices.

“Media has ruined everything in the country from the beginning and it will continue ruining, they only search for suspense and fame, people’s interests are not important to them, how come you are going to reveal the masked criminals who appeared in the video,’’ Hazem yelled angrily as he was watching a TV show about a small girl kidnapping accident. Through his quote, Hazem simply reflects the opinion of the police forces about the media.

Other soap operas this Ramadan tackles the relationship between the media and the Ministry of Interior and how they deal with each other, in a relationship always similar to the cat and mouse one.