Sherif Fathy, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, commented on the controversy surrounding young man Abdelrahman Khaled, the creator of the video promoting the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, saying it is not a creative work. He revealed in press statements today, on the sidelines of the launch of the "Ehna Masr" (We Are Egypt) tourism awareness campaign, that the video belongs to the ministry as one of the official promotional films for the museum's opening, and was published on July 3, which had been the set date for the official opening before it was postponed to the coming November 1.
The tourism minister explained that what Abdelrahman did concerns intellectual property rights, as he used the same video, added world-famous figures to it using artificial intelligence technology, and attributed the entire work to himself. This prompted the ministry to file an official complaint against him to document the case, and an official press statement was issued stating that the circulating video is fake and not the original, so as not to cause embarrassment to the ministry internationally, especially after the wide spread it achieved.
The minister stressed that the ministry is keen to protect its rights to promotional and media materials linked to major archaeological projects, foremost among them the Grand Egyptian Museum, noting that these materials are produced to the highest international standards in a way that reflects the greatness of Egyptian civilization.
He added that he supports genuine creativity and the production of content that helps promote Egyptian tourism, but stressed the need to respect intellectual property and comply with the regulations and laws governing it, and the necessity of obtaining prior permission before using any official promotional materials, so that those using them are not exposed to legal accountability.
