His sudden demise barely
registered in Egyptian media - in fact, papers there prioritised Egypt's
hosting of the forthcoming 2019 African Cup of Nations on its front pages, and
instead relegated Morsi's death to the inside pages usually designated for
criminal affairs.
The state-run channels failed to
even mention that Morsi - the first democratically-elected leader in Egypt -
was a former president, instead referring to him with his full name.
The coverage was short and to the point - just 42
words (in Arabic) both in print media, radio and on television:
"Mohammed Morsi died
yesterday during his trial in an espionage case. The deceased asked the judge
to speak and the court gave him permission. After the court was adjourned, he
fainted and died. The body was transferred to hospital and the necessary
procedures are under way."
An Egyptian news anchor
unwittingly put a spotlight on the similarities between the reports in an
on-air gaffe on Tuesday.
Whilst reading from a
teleprompter, Extra News TV's Noha Darwish signed off her report with the
words: "This was sent by a Samsung device."
She appeared visibly confused and
embarrassed when she realised her mistake, pausing for a few seconds before
continuing to read the news bulletin.
According to the opposition Mada Masr website, the
story was sent to news editors across Egypt "by a government entity"
via Whatsapp messenger.
"This came with instructions
to place the brief account of Morsi's death on the inside pages as opposed to
the front page," the website said, quoting an anonymous newspaper source.
Extra News TV is affiliated with
a private equity fund which, according to Mada Masr, has links with Egypt's
intelligence services.
The BBC was unable to reach the
Egyptian authorities for comment on the story.
Morsi had largely fallen out of the spotlight after
his ousting by the military as president in 2013.
A year earlier, he was chosen as
the Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate after the Islamist movement's
first-choice candidate was forced to pull out of the race.
However, his first - and only -
year in office proved to be a turbulent time, with Morsi accused by his critics
of mounting an Islamist coup and mishandling the economy. He faced mass
anti-government protests which led to the military suspending the constitution
and detaining him.
Under his successor Abdul Fattah
al-Sisi, the authorities launched a crackdown on Morsi supporters and the
now-banned Muslim Brotherhood which saw hundreds killed and tens of thousands
detained.
Why
was Morsi's death downplayed?
"The media in Egypt is
effectively controlled by the security forces," Hussein Baoumi, Amnesty
International's Egypt researcher, explains.
"Security agencies send
messages or emails to the TV channels, giving them a script on how to cover a
particular news item or specific issue," he told the BBC.
"With Mohammed Morsi, they
wanted to limit the information available on him and present their own version
of the story - the story being that they were not responsible for his death. They
also wanted to present his rule as though he was an abuser from the Muslim
Brotherhood who fooled a population."
The media landscape has
transformed under Mr Sisi's presidency, with the authorities increasing their
control over both traditional and social media to an unprecedented degree.
AFP
Mohammed
Morsi died yesterday during his trial in an espionage case...After the court
was adjourned, he fainted and died.
According to Mr Baoumi, Mada Masr
is one of the few remaining independent websites still operating in Egypt, and
people have to circumnavigate heavy censorship of the site by using virtual
private networks (VPNs) which use servers abroad to provide a secure internet
link.
Reporters without Borders (RSF)
ranks Egypt 163 out of 180 countries worldwide for press freedom, describing it
as "one of the world's biggest prisons for journalists".
In 2015, President Sisi passed a
counter-terrorism law banning journalists from publishing information that
contradicts official government accounts of militant attacks.
Three years later, he ratified
another controversial law that allowed the state to tighten controls over the
internet and block websites if they are deemed to be a threat to national
security or the economy.
"The authorities have waged a witch-hunt since
2013 against journalists suspected of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and
have orchestrated what we call a 'Sisification' of the media," RSF's
Sabrina Bennoui told the BBC, citing the terrorism and cybercrime laws.
"Since then, journalists are
forced to report only the official versions of 'terrorist' attacks and it was
made possible to prosecute and imprison journalists, censor newspapers and
close websites."
Ms Bennoui says while there is no
confirmation that the government dictated the 42-word report on Morsi's death,
the former president was considered a member of a terrorist group and so these
strict reporting restrictions would have probably applied to coverage of his
death.
At the time of his death, Morsi
was serving numerous prison sentences on several charges - and rights groups,
including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, had criticised the
conditions in which he was being kept in prison.
The Egyptian authorities have accused the UN of
"politicising" Morsi's death, after it called for an
independent investigation into his demise.
With reporting from BBC
Monitoring's Neveen Youssef
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