Nilesat did itself no favours by dropping carriage of Arabic news channel Al Jazeera on January 30 at the height of the ‘People’s Revolution’ in Tahrir Square. At the time the blame was placed firmly at the door of Egypt’s powerful information ministry, and its minister Anas Al Fiki. He was speedily sacked, but not before closing Al Jazeera’s Cairo bureau, arresting key journalists and in the process straining commercial relationships with important Nilesat clients like Jordan Media City and Orbit Showtime Network.

The channel is now firmly back on the air on Nilesat. In total it was off-air for 11 days, but Al Jazeera’s signals were widely carried by other broadcasters in the region and its signal was also available from Arabsat and Eutelsat.

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