On a slow news day, count on the BBC for important, hard-hitting coverage. Correspondent Ian Pannell writes:
For weeks now Cairo has been full of rumours about the president’s health, or lack of it….
The media love to ruminate about and rehearse for the death of important figures – monarchs, religious leaders, actors – and of course presidents.
The other reason this story proved hard to resist was because it happened in the ‘silly season’, that time of year when very little happens in the world – when people go on holiday – including presidents.
But papers must publish and the media must broadcast.
So the threshold for what constitutes a real story plummets.
Where was Pannell during Mubarak’s photo-op on Thursday?
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner (L) speaks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (R) during their meeting in Cairo September 13, 2007. REUTERS/Nasser Nuri (EGYPT)
UPDATE Sept. 17: On the other hand, Time points out that the rumors are touching a raw nerve with the Mubarak regime:
Two days earlier, a state security prosecutor charged the editor for threatening Egyptian security and interests by publishing articles alleging that the 79-year-old Mubarak’s health had become shaky. . . .
Bottom line: as Mubarak inevitably ages and speculation naturally increases about his eventual successor, the government will brook no press freedom that threatens efforts to engineer an orderly transition. Stability, after all, is Mubarak’s legacy. Battles between the regime and the press are thus likely to be a regular feature of the news from Egypt in the coming few years.
