Media Men Denied Access to the IDSC Silver Jubilee Celebration

Journalists, newspapers and TV channels were blocked from attending the celebration of the Egyptian Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Center Silver Jubilee, after 25 years of its establishment.
 
Not only were media men blocked from attending the celebration, but it was also extended to cover a number of university professors, exhibitors and many invitation holders.
 
The celebration was scheduled to be held December 20-21, 2010 in Smart Village, in the presence of a number of ministers who previously worked in IDSC, in addition of hundreds of officials, politicians, intellectuals, and media.
 
A private bus carrying journalists to the IDSC a few minutes before ten o’clock, was available, and police asked them to wait outside the conference center and to be allowed entrance to the hall after the Prime Minister, but to their surprise the doors were closed.
 
Security officials refused journalists to listen to the prime minister’s speech and doors were only opened for the ministers, who also faced slight difficulties like the Minister of Transport, Engineer Alaa Fahmy who came first, followed by the Minister of State for Economic Development, Othman Mohamed Othman, who tried to persuade them of their importance but to no avail although reporters from Al-Ahramand Mena news agencys were granted permission to cover the ceremony.
 
Higher Education Minister Hani Helal, Minister of State for Family and Population Mushira Khattab, Governor of Helwan and the chairman of the General Authority for Investment (GAFI), Osama Saleh, attended the ceremony.
 
Doors were opened again at 11:20 am after Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif delivered his speech. Journalists and TV channels were asked once again to go to the lobby and were forced to leave the area. Egyptian state-owned or television channels were allowed to broadcast the event.
 
 At the same time, a number of private TV channels tried to overcome the odds by broadcasting the meetings via large screens located in the lobby.