IN A recent television show, Bassem Youssef, an Egyptian satirist, gave special thanks to President Muhammad Morsi. The Egyptian leader provided such a wealth of comic material, he said, that the comedian’s team of jokers could cut production costs and get rid of half his staff.

Not long after, Mr Youssef got another official boost. Egypt’s public prosecutor, a recent and controversial appointment by Mr Morsi, hauled him in for questioning on charges of insulting the president, defaming Islam and “publishing false news”. The summons made Mr Youssef, already the most-watched figure on Egyptian airwaves, an international symbol of freedom of speech. The White House itself voiced concern about his fate.

Mr Youssef, who was freed on bail, has not been alone. Pummelled by a growing barrage of ridicule, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government has gone on the offensive. Responding to a bevy of lawsuits brought by Brotherhood supporters, Mr Morsi’s prosecutor has issued a string of summonses, including against a stand-up comic who dared poke fun at the angry, berating tone of mosque sermons.

Amid a campaign in the Brotherhood’s media that depicts the country’s independent press as counter-revolutionary subversives, the state body that licenses satellite channels has warned that it will act unless the broadcasts become less cheeky. As Mr Youssef explained in a message to his 1.2m followers on Twitter, “It seems they want to drain us physically, emotionally and financially.”

Egypt has become deeply polarised. Many pious, ordinary citizens agree that performers such as Mr Youssef come close to exceeding the bounds of decency. Egyptian law forbids any insult to religion, while tradition immunises Arab heads of state from public ridicule. Yet it remains striking that whereas the Morsi government has opted to punish its critics, it has largely spared right-wing religious commentators who deride Egypt’s opposition as infidels, routinely blast Jews and Shias, and incite hatred against Egypt’s large Christian minority. Moreover, its resort to hounding the press smacks of the methods used by Hosni Mubarak’s ousted regime.

Or, indeed, of other Arab countries, where satirists in particular have paid a high price for dissent. Since November, Sami Fehri, a Tunisian producer of a political puppet show that mocked his country’s Islamist leaders, has been in prison on corruption charges. Nadim Koteich, whose bitterly sarcastic take-offs of politicians, in particular those of Hizbullah, the Shia party-cum-militia, are popular on Lebanon’s Future TV, often gets death threats. Raif Badawi, a Saudi blogger, has been in jail since last June for “ridiculing Islamic religious figures”. Hadi al-Mahdi, an Iraqi radio humorist, was shot dead in 2011.

The region’s leaders might pause to ponder the words of Ahmed Sanoussi, a Moroccan comedian better known as Bziz. After an 18-year ban from appearing in public, he was asked if there should be any rules for satire. “Yes,” he said, “to attack only the powerful, not the weak.”