CAIRO: A prominent Egyptian satirist has been fined millions of dollars over a dispute with a television channel which suspended his show after it lampooned military leaders, officials said on Tuesday.

Bassem Youssef, often compared to US satirist Jon Stewart, moved Al-Bernameg (The Programme) to Saudi-owned channel MBC last year after it was pulled by the private Egyptian broadcaster CBC.

The Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration fined Youssef and his company, Q-Soft, 50 million Egyptian pounds ($6.5m) each for “CBC’s financial and literary losses,” CBC owner Mohamed al-Amin said.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2014