Leave it to the government to stifle innovation and progress: Gramafoon, an Egyptian online radio known by its slogan “We play the forgotten” and playful elephant motif, announced Saturday that it would stop streaming online on May 5 due to financial issues and legal restrictions.
“Gramafoon’s anniversary is in a few days. Every year, that day is always special, and we try to celebrate it differently,” the statement said, “but this year, we decided to celebrate a little differently.”
“This year, May 5 won’t be the beginning of Gramafoon’s fifth year, but the end of the past four years!”
In a country whose cultural heritage is often too rich for the official state run bodies to preserve, projects such as Gramafoon take it upon themselves to preserve the treasures that are covered up in the dust of archives.
“Gramafoon is doing what Maspero [the headquarters of the Egyptian Radio and Television Union] is not doing, which is an embarrassment to those running it,” Ahmed Kamal, the radio’s founder, said in an interview with Mada Masr.
Whether it is from the embarrassment or fear of not having enough control over what is being aired regardless of the content, the National Media Authority, which is supposed to take over the legal rights and jurisdiction of ERTU, drafted a new law that limits online radio stations and the extent to which they can broadcast.
According to Article 16 of the regulations, no tools or technologies are allowed to be used for live public broadcast over the Internet or satellite without permission from the NMA.
Just like much of the Egyptian legal system, “the interpretation of this article is extremely wide, and targets all institutions from the biggest online radio channel to the smallest YouTube channel,” Kamal told Mada Masr.
“When we launched the radio station, we were hoping to air on FM. Suddenly, we found ourselves fighting to do so. As things progressed, we found ourselves struggling just to stay online without being arrested,” the statement said. “During the past four months, a million new laws were drafted that are worthy to put us in jail quite easily.”
Since the military takeover in June 2013, several television channels have been shut down while other programs have been banned. And now the authorities seem to be turning their focus toward broadcast and online media.
No one ever claimed that Egypt embraces freedom of expression, but how long till we fully bid it farewell?