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A banner in Tahrir on Friday, by the Popular Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, denouncing the National Security Bureau, the successor (or to be more correct, the reinvention) of State Security Police…
The Administrative court fined Mubarak, former PM Nazif and former interior minister Habib el-Adly LE540 millions for cutting the internet during the revolution. However, the mobile phone operators, which I regard as complicit, are off the hook and will even receive compensations:
Telecoms operator Vodafone said in January it and other mobile operators had no option but to comply with an order from the authorities to suspend services in selected areas of the country during the peak of the anti-government demonstrations.
In February, Vodafone also accused the authorities of using its network to send pro-government text messages to subscribers.
Communications and Information Technology Minister Maged Othman said his ministry planned to pay compensation estimated at around 100 million pounds to mobile telecoms operators for losses caused by the service disruption, the state news agency MENA said. It said the figure was reached by independent bodies.
The operators have had a moral obligation to say no. And no matter what “national security” obligations they signed onto when receiving their license from the state, they could have sent out warnings to the millions of customers prior to cutting the service, which could have saved lives.
And if Mubarak, Nazif and Adly were found found guilty, what about Mubarak’s minister of telecommunication, Tarek Kamel? Not only is he off the hook, but he’s been rewarded a seat in the NTRA board of directors, where General Rushdi el-Qamari still keeps his position.
The money should not go to the companies. The money should be go to the families of the martyrs and injured whose lives could have been saved if the telecommunication network was up and running during the uprising.
Protesters in Tahrir Square on Friday…
Protester in Tahrir on Friday, denouncing the monthly fees (which come with the electricity bills) imposed by the government on citizens for “garbage collection”, though the service is hardly provided. The issue has been the target of campaigners since 2006.
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