CAIRO, 24 November 2007 — Media persons covering the 11th Pan Arab Games hit out at organizers for a badly run press center and disorganized games. This Egypt experience was a nightmare as they grappled with all sorts of problems in the performance of their jobs.
Their sufferings boiled over when, for two straight nights on Wednesday and Thursday, they were driven out of the media center at the Military College Club in Cairo.
While in the middle of trying to beat the deadline for their newspapers journalists were shocked after press center hands told them they were closing shop for the day at 11 p.m. They said they have rules to follow and turned off the lights, asking the media people rather rudely to leave the premises.
This incident happened Wednesday night. The next day, it was even worse. As early as 8 p.m. journalists who were either yet to file or about to file their stories were asked to leave.
Incensed by this shabby treatment, a Saudi journalist barked, “Is this how you treat your guests in this country?” The reply was a sheepish grin from the security detail at the press center.
Another journalist from the Gulf chimed in, “The Media Center at the 15th Asian Games used to be open 24 hours for the media along with the restaurant and all facilities needed, in addition to volunteers who would help us at anytime, and here we are getting kicked out disrespectfully without any consideration to our work.”
A senior Egyptian journalist explained to the people manning the press booth that this is not an appropriate of way of dealing with their guests and media. “Some of them are not Egyptians. We are here to work and you have no right in asking us to leave. The event just finished two hours ago and we have work to do here,” he said.
The Egyptian scribe threatened to bring the matter up to the higher officials and then asked the press center workers to turn the lights back on to no avail.
A near scuffle broke out when some members of media, on one hand, and security people and press center workers, on the other, started cursing each other.
Faced with no other option, the media people had to drive all the way to the main press center that would take them more than half an hour to reach considering the traffic on crowded streets.
“The hosts might have succeeded in winning many medals but they definitely failed in organizing this event and welcoming their guests respectfully,” said another journalist out of frustration.
Life at these games for journalists is indeed very tough. Access to the games venue is restricted if not impossible, according to reporters from Lebanon who refused to be named. The results were not readily available or if they are they were incomplete.
Photographers found the media center a good facility to send their photos with the high speed Internet, yet when it comes to shooting the pictures, “we find difficulties,” said a Saudi photographer.
“We are either banned from roaming around to finding the perfect spot, or suddenly could not stand still as other media men gather in chaos to take a picture of athletes. There should be a row or a place a bit far from the athletes in order for us to take nice photos.”
In addition, other media men complained having the games venues spread out in different cities was a wrong decision.
“We could barely cover what is here and get the correct results, we need to cover our national team’s participation on other cities and we depend on other reporters who sometimes pass on wrong information,” said another reporter in his late 50.
“It would be nice to go and discover other cities but with the stress of the championship there is no time and hence it would have been better for them to hold them all in places close to each other, for example, like what happened at the 15th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar.
Transportation, too, is an issue. While some had to rent a car with a driver from $150 per day others are being charged for the same service for $200. On top of that they had to fork out extra money for gasoline and meals for the drivers.
“The media center offers some shuttle buses but the timings are not always accurate and known. I’ve spent more than one hour scouring Cairo trying to find the Military College Club and missed our national team match because the driver refused to accept the fact that he did not know and did not want to ask for directions until it was too late.”
For those whose only means of transport is by taxicab, to enter a certain stadium is an ordeal by itself as you had to enter by foot from the main entrance because taxis are not allowed. “We are not from here and we do not know the places. We want to save time but the security at the gate refuse to let us in with the taxi even if we promised that he would leave right away. They mislead us to the stadium or hall we want to visit sometimes making us lose more time. It is very inconvenient,” another reporter said.
“Now they have provided each delegation with a shuttle that stays with us yet it is still terrible because of the fact that there are no media centers spread in each stadium and that their official website is always late in posting their news in addition to not having a special place dedicated to the media in each hall and stadium to write or shoot photographs freely,” said Mohammed Huwais from Al-Thawrah Newspaper in Yemen.
Hisham Al-Gizouli of Khaleej Times said,” It is widely believed that the games were no more than a poorly organized political show that has even undermined the chances of host cities to portray themselves beyond the sporting events.”
