Egypt’s media ramps up plane crash rhetoric

Newspapers accuse West of plotting to destroy economy by scaring tourists

CAIRO— Egyptian media have reacted with fury as Britain and the United States increasingly point to a bomb as the cause of the Oct. 31 Russian plane crash in Sinai, with many outlets hammering home the same message: Egypt is facing a western conspiracy that seeks to scare off tourists and destroy the country’s economy.

The warnings of a plot have been widely promoted by opinion-makers in print, online and on TV. Commentators sometimes hint, and sometimes say flat out, that the West has restricted flights to Egypt not purely out of safety concerns for its citizens but because it wants to un- dermine the country or prevent President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi from making Egypt too strong.

These conspiracy theories have apparently tapped into the Egyptian mindset — so much so that when Russia last Friday grounded all flights to Egypt, some media spec- ulated that Moscow had fallen victim to British pressure and manipulation.

“The people defy the conspiracy — Egypt will not cave in to pressures,” the state-owned Al-Gomhuria newspaper proclaimed in a front-page headline this week. “Egypt stands up to ‘the West’s terrorism,’ ” an independent daily, El-Watan, headlined.

The rhetoric reflects in part the deep reluctance in the press to level serious criticism or suggestion of shortcomings by el-Sissi’s government.

Government and independent me- dia alike have constantly lionized elSissi and depicted him as Egypt’s saviour ever since he — as head of the military — led the army’s 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

Since el-Sissi’s election as president the following year, most media have continued to laud him as working to bring stability.

“Denial on behalf of the state that there is a crisis and then trying to point to some kind of third party is very normal” in Egypt, Hebatalla Taha, an Egypt-focused analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told The Associated Press.

Taha said the rhetoric is the “standard fallback” for the state. Private citizens, she said, likely wouldn’t have come up with the conspiracy theories on their own, “but they’re very likely to adopt what state media is saying.”