CAIRO, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Recent actions against news media in Egypt led to accusations the new government tolerates tactics similar to those used by former President Hosni Mubarak.
In recent weeks, authorities suspended a satellite television channel employing an opponent of President Mohamed Morsi, confiscated copies of a critical newspaper and accused an editor of a state-run newspaper of censoring writers critical of the Muslim Brotherhood, once led Morsi.
The government's actions, which have drawn criticism from news media, have revived concerns about what Islamists will do to gain power, CNN reported Wednesday.
"What's happening is very serious," said Hani Shukrallah, editor of Ahram Online. "We've got an organization [Muslim Brotherhood] that is not interested in democratizing the press, or freeing the press," he said. "It's interested in taking it over."
The controversy also points up challenges facing Egypt's leaders as they chase a strategy of altering some aspects of Mubarak's authoritarian state, CNN said. Morsi and his allies said they're shifting Egypt toward justice by appointing reformist ministers and aides while eliminating traditional centers of power, such as the military and the Interior Ministry.
Morsi's detractors accuse him of transforming the government to better reflect the Brotherhood.
