For 18 days of his life, starting the 25th of January 2011 up to the 11th of February, Abdel Latif El Menawy slept in his office inside Egypt's State TV building. The landmark building behind Tahrir Square was under constant siege, locked down by tanks and barbed wire as protesters massed outside the building. Throughout events, he was constantly in touch with the President and the ruling clique led by the President's son and heir apparent, Gamal, as well as senior government ministers and officers at the highest levels of the Defence and Intelligence services. All the while, he kept the TV channels running, working with a skeleton crew of exhausted, scared, yet committed journalists and technicians.