How the rest of the Arab world didn’t cover Mubarak’s speech

Those expecting a knock-on effect of the Egyptian Revolution across the Middle East should look away now. The true extent of misinformation in some of the region’s dictatorships was revealed when President Mubarak gave a speech to his people and it was completely ignored by state media in several of the Arab  countries where regime change has been urged.

Shortly before 9 (UK time) Mubarak finished a crucial speech in which he said he was not about to resign despite hundreds of thousands of people out on the streets. Surely the biggest story across the Middle East. A few minutes later a number of Arab media had on the hour news bulletins. Here is what they led with.

The Syrian state-run TV channel (Syrian Television) led with the ceremonial cutting of Syrian cake with Syrian flag on it, while in Jordan Al-Urdunniyya led with the swearing in of the new government and made no reference to Egypt.

In Abu Dhabi (adtv.ie) the story was about the Qatari World Cup and again no mention of Egypt.

In fairness Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera led with it, but for those thinking that there will be a knock on effect across the Middle East it requires that the people know about it in the first place.

Interestingly, the Syrians only two days ago allowed facebook, having previously banned it, so it will be worth watching the developments their on the internet.