What Egyptian State TV Says About The State Of Egypt
It sounded like a slip of the tongue. As millions of Egyptians took to the streets calling for President Mohammed Morsi to step down, state TV anchor George Heshmat casually used the word "revolution" instead of "protests."
This signaled that state TV was beginning to assert its independence from a government that was never a good fit for it anyway. It was clear that something had changed at the voice of the state — even before Morsi was pushed from power.
Now, seven armored personnel carriers are positioned outside the building in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, and soldiers stand at the ready through its corridors.
But the soldiers are not in the newsroom.
"You can say that we made a war here to deliver our message and to erase all the stereotype images that have been about us in the past," says Samar Mahdi, an editor there.
Controlling The Coverage
Egypt's state-run television station has now worked under four different leaders in the past 2 1/2 years, following the military's ouster of Morsi last week.
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