A Mousque silhouetted against sunset in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
A Mousque silhouetted against sunset in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
An Egyptian woman holds a poster with Arabic that reads, "my Christian siblings.. happy new year.." in front of the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
An Egyptian protester walks past a banner near the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. Protesters will celebrate New Year's eve in front of the presidential palace. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Egyptian protesters decorate a Christmas tree near the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. Protesters will celebrate New Year's eve in front of the presidential palace. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
In this image released by the Egyptian Presidency, Mohammed Morsi addresses the newly convened upper house of parliament in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. Egypt's Islamist president warned against any unrest that could harm the drive to repair the country's battered economy in his first address before the newly convened upper house of parliament on Saturday, urging the opposition to work with his government. In the nationally televised speech, Mohammed Morsi said the nation's entire efforts should be focused on "production, work, seriousness and effort," now that a new constitution came into effect this week, blaming protests and violence the last month for causing further damage to an economy already in crisis since the fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak. (AP Photo/Egyptian Presidency)
CAIRO (AP) ? Egyptian prosecutors launched an investigation on Tuesday against a popular television satirist for allegedly insulting the president in the latest case raised by Islamist lawyers against outspoken media personalities.
Lawyer Ramadan Abdel-Hamid al-Oqsori charged that TV host Bassem Youssef insulted President Mohammed Morsi by putting the Islamist leader's image on a pillow and parodying his speeches.
The case against Youssef comes as opposition media and independent journalists are growing increasingly worried about press freedoms under a new constitution widely supported by Morsi and his Islamist allies.
Other cases have been brought against media personalities who have criticized the president since Morsi's victory in the country's first free presidential election last summer. Some of the cases have ended with charges being dropped. Morsi's office maintains that the president has nothing to do with legal procedures against media critics.
A local committee of journalists and editors has called for stronger guarantees of press freedoms and a rejection of the current constitution, fearing it allows for jailing journalists under broadly-worded articles regarding media offenses.
Authorities ordered the closure of TV station "Al-Fareen" last summer after bringing its owner, Tawfiq Okasha, to trial for scathing attacks against Morsi and his Brotherhood group. Okasha had emerged as one of the most popular TV personalities of post-Hosni Mubarak Egypt by railing against the uprising that toppled Mubarak's 29-year rule in February 2011.
Another prominent case was directed at the editor of a prominent opposition newspaper, al-Dustour, who has since stepped down. He went on trial briefly for "spreading lies" and fabricating news.
Youssef, a doctor, catapulted to fame when his video blogs mocking politics received hundreds of thousands of hits shortly after the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime leader Mubarak.
Youssef's program is modeled after Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show," where he has appeared as a guest.
Unlike other local TV presenters, Youssef uses satire to mock fiery comments made by ultraconservative clerics and politicians, garnering him a legion of fans among the country's revolutionaries and liberals.
Among his most popular clips are the ones where he pokes fun at the president's speeches and decisions.
While holding a red, furry pillow with Morsi's picture on it, Youssef satirizes Morsi's style of speech.
"The president understands us. He understands us better than we understand ourselves," Youssef says in a clip. "He tells us things we never knew," he adds, before going to wordy clips of Morsi going into detail about the day of the week and other basic facts.
"It's October 6! Tell us when it's Christmas!" Youssef shouts to the camera as the audience erupts in laughter and applause.
The opposition, which is Youssef's main fan base, failed to defeat the constitution, despite mass street protests against it. The charter passed with almost 64 percent of votes. Opponents say the low turnout in the referendum, less than 33 percent, and the lack of national consensus undermine its legitimacy.
In another clip, Youssef asks whether Egyptians created a revolution to remove a dictator and bring in another one. That came after Morsi issued power-grabbing decrees that placed him above judicial oversight. The decrees allowed him to shield the Islamist-dominated assembly that was drafting the constitution from the Supreme Constitutional Court, which was set to rule on its legitmacy.
Youssef, 38, is one of Egypt's most popular TV presenters with 1.4 million fans on Facebook and nearly 850,000 followers on Twitter, just shy of the president's number of followers.
Also Tuesday, police said they arrested a suspect in a shooting that seriously wounded a protester in Cairo's central Tahrir Square, where an open-ended sit-in protesting the Morsi regime is taking place.
According to witnesses, before dawn on Monday, gunmen shot and wounded 19-year-old Muhanad Samir, who has said he was jailed and tortured under Egypt's former ruling military council after he witnessed the killing of another activist. Lawyers say the attacked appeared to target Samir, who is battling for his life with pellets embedded in his head.
Security officials dismiss allegations Samir was the victim of a political assassination. On Tuesday, they said they arrested the owner of a cafe in downtown Cairo who told police that he fired on the square after people manning makeshift checkpoints there searched his car and shot at him. The officials spoke anonymously in line with regulations.
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