Arabic press review: Egypt's military in TV takeover

Egypt's military media

Four Egyptian satellite television channels have fallen into the grip of the military intelligence service, which has acquired advertising rights for them, according to Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.

A media company owned by the military intelligence has become the advertising agent for four Egyptian networks, the newspaper reported, at a time when TV channels are recording significant losses.

"The intelligence service’s control over Egyptian media is no longer a formality, as the apparatus has officially declared that it has received various satellite channels’ rights for advertising sponsorship,” Al-Akhbar wrote.

The newspaper noted that Prince Turki al-Sheikh, an aide at the Saudi royal court, is currently planning to launch a network of channels specialising in Egyptian affairs, and is expected to quickly acquire a significant position in the country.

This represents a new challenge for the sector, which has been suffering from heavy losses over the past two years.

Hamas assassination suspect

Bosnian authorities are refusing to hand over a person suspected of being involved in the 2016 assassination of Hamas member Mohamed Zouari, Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported.

Zouari, a 49-year-old engineer and citizen of Tunisia, is believed to have been killed by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, due to his membership of Hamas’ Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades.

Sofiene al-Sliti, spokesman for the Tunisian prosecutor’s office, told Asharq al-Awsat that one of the people suspected of Zouari's assassination was arrested in Croatia.

He said that two suspects had been identified and both hold Bosnian nationality, which enabled their movements to be tracked prior to the arrest of one of them.

Sliti told Asharq al-Awsat that the Bosnian authorities are refusing to hand the suspect over to Tunisia, as Bosnia’s laws prohibit extradition of its nationals to foreign countries.

Algeria imports 'sub-standard'

Algeria’s trade minister Said Jallab said that 95 percent of products entering the country are substandard as they do not meet the required specifications, according to Algerian newspaper Echorok al-Yawmi.

In comments made to the Algerian parliament during a discussion on consumer protection law, Jallab said the import of 850 products had been temporarily frozen due to the economic situation in the country.

He said that any product included in this number is now prohibited and those importing it will be charged additional fees if it makes its way to Algeria in the future.

* Arabic press review is a digest of reports that are not independently verified as accurate by Middle East Eye.