The administrative court banned on Wednesday the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Rabaa satellite channel and al-Jazeera's Egyptian channel.
The court ordered Egypt's NileSat Satellite to halt the channels' broadcast. A judicial source told Aswat Masriya that the court's decision regarding the Jazeera ban is "binding", adding that it can be appealed in the Supreme Administrative Court.
The verdict regarding the Jazeera ban addresses the substantive level of the case, a judicial source told Aswat Masriya. The Urgent Matters Court had ordered the channel's ban last September.
In Rabaa channel's case, nevertheless, Wednesday's decision was issued on an urgent level. The court is yet to review the substance of the case and decide upon it accordingly.
The lawyer who filed the lawsuit, Samir Sabry, had accused Rabaa channel of broadcasting "false and misleading" news on Egypt to "incite protects and encourage students to … commit violent acts to cripple the educational process."
Another lawyer, Mamdouh Tamam, had called for closing down the Jazeera Egyptian Channel, Jazeera Mubasher Misr, for "spreading anti-June 30 revolution news."
In August 2013, the ministers of investment, communications and information said that the Jazeera channel was illegally and unprofessionally operating in Egypt. The ministers added that the Qatari news channel was not authorised to work in Egypt.
Jazeera's Cairo bureau was shut down after the ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July 2014. The Qatari channel, whose slogan is providing "the opinion and the other opinion," has long been accused of supporting Egypt's Islamist political factions, especially the Muslim Brotherhood.
