IN A SYMPOSIUM ORGANISED BY MAAT CENTER ABOUT THE EFFECT OF POLITICS ON THE PRESS

04/07/2006

Saeid Shoaip:News papers in Egypt with its different trends used to serve individuals and there is no role for their editors –in –chief but to keep their own positions while the Syndicate is just a back garden for the political trends.

 Yesterday evening Maat Center held a symposium about the effect of the  politics on the press . The symposium tackled the reality of the professional freedom in the Egyptian news papers and the effect of the political trends on journalists who worked for the national papers which are now completely dominated by the government or for papers affiliated to opposition parties which express the real owner's own position and point of view or worked for private news papers which appeared lately as joint stock companies .

 Mr. Ayman Oqeel ,the manager of the center ,starts the discussion by defining politics according to the historian , Gad Taha , as some thing "inferior " and that it is one of the factors that direct Media in the world . In this frame work was the attempts of some journalists to violate Holiness of religions such as the violent campaign leaded by the Zionist and Imperialist ,Daniel Papies , in which he abuses the Prophet Mohamed   PEACE BE UPON HIM ] and insists on chasing some thinkers like Edward Saeed , Professor Rasheed Al Khaldi and some other times he launched a campaign against Zayed Center For Following And Coordination which affiliated to the Arab League .

The symposium guest , the journalist Saeid Shoaip  , discussed the effect of politics upon the professional performance of journalists and condemns the condition of the professional reality of the Press . He also rejects measuring the Press performance with political standards or with the loyalty to some political trend or to some body such as the chairman of board , editor -in – chief or the head of the party . Mr. Shoaip also tackled in his talks the phenomenon of the news papers called " independent news    papers " as he refused this naming because it does not expresses  the reality ;i.e. these news papers are individual   ones  , just expresses its owner's benefits . National papers are under the domination and control of the ruling party  ,they are the mouthpieces of the ruling party and still this is the case in the private ones . So , now the press arena turned to be an arena to exchange insults between the owners of benefits and powers among the absence of the real role of the press and this is the cause behind the absence of the  readers' minds and the domination of the press of self –purification and the political tribalism .

 In Shoaip's comment on the role of the Press Syndicate and its being affected by the political trends , he attacked the Syndicate accusing it of being the back garden of the political trends  . He also refused its direction to protect just a limited group of journalists disregarding others according to accounts that have no thing to do with its role to protect professional rights of the press and of journalists but they are related to double standards . So, how come that a Syndicate in which the director is the worker and is the  one who carries out the job ;he is the judge and the enemy, to be a body to express all its members 'needs and benefits without outer effect.

So, there is no wonder that the Syndicate's council hails any one who attacks the government and regards him as the carrier of freedom mottos while abandoning the young journalists who call for their minimum professional rights in front of the one considered by the council the official spokesman of freedom leaving the problems of young journalists unsolved .

The symposium guest added : " for all the previous reasons , the council's interference to solve the problems of the colleges in the national papers is not because it is keen to meet their needs as it is an intrigue against its board of directors and an exploitation of the issue . The evidence to this is that the council did not move to protect the journalist's rights in most of party news papers such as Elarabi Elnasery.Thus ,  Mr.Saeid called for an independent syndicate that gathers the chairmen of boards ,following the Lebanese example, and for the necessity to separate between the two positions of the directorship of the press organization and the editor directorship and for the pressing need to reform the Syndicate's law which does not allow the journalists to be registered in the Syndicate until he is humiliated and left as a victim to the Press organization owner until he obtain the "humiliation" contract (work contract) to be registered in the Press Syndicate .

In a reply to the question about the discussion with Mahde Akef , the guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, he said that the talk did not published fully in Elkarama news paper and in spite of the insisting of Gamal Fahme, the executive editor- in –chief, but the political considerations of Hamden Sabahe during the parliamentary election made him omit 40 percent of the dialogue and thus I regret it.

Shoaip added :the guide, after that ,appeared in Orbit Channel and tried to accuse me of being blasphemy and no one move to defend me . Also Saad Khalifa, one of the representatives of the group, presented an urgent statement to the attorney general charging me with abusing Islamic Religion, blasphemy and supporting devil worshipers .

Mr. Shoaip concluded his talks about the journalists' rights to have a syndicate that expresses them asserting that the most dangerous fault of Gamal Abdel Nasser who have a lot of advantages is the news papers nationalization to be a part of the ruling party organization and after the appearance of the parties the news papers used the same mechanism and refused the multi-syndicate.

At the end of the symposium ,Mr.Ayman Oqeel, assured the center's support for all different opinions that call for freedom of expression and disagreement with others springing from the belief that diversity is the way to democratic society that allows the opinion and the opposite one without controlling or charging the believer in an opinion with being extremist or disbeliever .

Regarding the professional side of the Press work, the center believes in the importance of separating between the Press profession and the political trends and the importance of judging the Press performance according to polite standards so as not to deprive the journalists from their rights inside the Institution for the benefits of others who are the party's members or those who are preferred by the decision maker  in such a way that caused corruption of the Press climate whose men are called upon to have freedom  so as to be able to fight corruption and corrupted men .