They say there’s no honor among thieves, well it seems there is little honor among the top echelons of Egypt’s Journalists’ Syndicate either. The Syndicate’s board has attempted to whip-up a public revolt against the country’s police force over the arrest of two wanted criminals hiding out in its Cairo headquarters.
According to the Syndicate’s version of events, 40-50 policemen broke down the door, rampaged through the building, smashed glass and attacked two security guards, injuring the eye of one. Notably, there are no photographs of videos to back-up its allegations.
The incident — or its version of it — incited up to 2,000 of the country’s 10,000 “journalists” to stage a protest complete with chants against the president, the government and the police. The board met and issued demands threatening to strike. These include the resignation of the interior minister, an apology from the presidency, virtual immunity from prosecution for journalists, and, the ultimate irony, an end to criticism of the press by local television program hosts.
But all is not what it seems. Thanks to the prominent editor and politician Mustafa Bakri who did his homework, the truth is exposed. The guards in question have both gone in air to report what really took place.
Firstly, the prosecution had, indeed, liaised with the syndicate asking that the criminals accused of plotting to overthrow the state and being in possession of firearms and Molotov Cocktails, be handed over. But as days passed with no sign of this request being adhered to just 7 to 10 policemen knocked on the syndicate’s door, which was opened by a guard.
An unspecified few entered the premises for approximately four minutes, took the two wanted men into custody and left. There was no bashing down doors, breaking glass, assaulting guards or storming of the premises. Both guards say they were coerced to sign “urgently required” false statements, which they were not permitted time to read.
Worse, as evidenced by videos, on the day of the protest, Muslim Brotherhood TV reporters working for the Al-Sharq channel were permitted to air their reports live from inside the syndicate.
The syndicate has shot itself in the foot and is exposed as having been infiltrated by fifth columnists out to find pretexts to bring down the state. Egyptians are angry and are overwhelmingly on the government’s side, as noted from social media and the furious opinions of callers to talk show hosts.
There have been counter-demonstrations organized by ordinary Egyptians waving their shoes or their fists in the air. There is a report of journalists being ejected from a minibus, another of three media personnel being asked to leave a restaurant at the behest of other customers.
The syndicate, which had instructed its members to publish the face of the interior minister in negative and ordered newspapers to blacken their front pages, has disgraced the profession. Its valid requests for greater press freedoms are now under threat.
For days, Egypt’s dailies were plastered with journalist’s gripes and threats, with little attention given to the big news of the day — the unveiling of the first phase of a project to turn one-and-a-half-million feddans of the desert green to expand Egypt’s self-sufficiency in wheat.
Most editors have now backtracked from their former hardline positions now they know the brouhaha was based on lies and evidently they didn’t count on such a severe public backlash. The result is a rancorous split within the media, which the editor of Al-Ahram attempted to heal by calling his colleagues on other papers to a meeting.
Almost all agreed that journalists are not above the law, have no business involving in politics and they decried the syndicate premises being an open house for Muslim Brotherhood TV reporters and other Egypt-unfriendly parties. Parliament was even more scathing. One MP insisted that 90 percent of the syndicate’s membership were not journalists; others called for an emergency general assembly to withdraw confidence from the syndicate board.
Lastly, I would like to get something straight. While Egypt is on the path to democracy the road remains long and strewn with boulders, as the president admits. His prime concerns are security, stability and the economy — and quite right too when he has the aspirations of 90 million people on his shoulders. And lest we forget, the country is battling Daesh in Sinai as well as violent elements, several linked to the Brotherhood.
Hundreds of military personnel and police have been killed and, on Sunday, four gunmen shot dead eight policemen while they were boarding a minibus. A claim of responsibility was received from a Brotherhood-sympathetic group called “Popular Resistance Egypt.”
Egypt bashers would do well to consider the circumstances and temper their knee-jerk sympathies with “poor, downtrodden journalists calling for freedom.” Freedom isn’t a cake, it has to be earned and I fear that the syndicate board’s cuddling of criminals, collusion with a branded terrorist group and its rewriting of events to ignite a public uprising, will unfairly tar all Egyptian journalists with the same brush.
According to the Syndicate’s version of events, 40-50 policemen broke down the door, rampaged through the building, smashed glass and attacked two security guards, injuring the eye of one. Notably, there are no photographs of videos to back-up its allegations.
The incident — or its version of it — incited up to 2,000 of the country’s 10,000 “journalists” to stage a protest complete with chants against the president, the government and the police. The board met and issued demands threatening to strike. These include the resignation of the interior minister, an apology from the presidency, virtual immunity from prosecution for journalists, and, the ultimate irony, an end to criticism of the press by local television program hosts.
But all is not what it seems. Thanks to the prominent editor and politician Mustafa Bakri who did his homework, the truth is exposed. The guards in question have both gone in air to report what really took place.
Firstly, the prosecution had, indeed, liaised with the syndicate asking that the criminals accused of plotting to overthrow the state and being in possession of firearms and Molotov Cocktails, be handed over. But as days passed with no sign of this request being adhered to just 7 to 10 policemen knocked on the syndicate’s door, which was opened by a guard.
An unspecified few entered the premises for approximately four minutes, took the two wanted men into custody and left. There was no bashing down doors, breaking glass, assaulting guards or storming of the premises. Both guards say they were coerced to sign “urgently required” false statements, which they were not permitted time to read.
Worse, as evidenced by videos, on the day of the protest, Muslim Brotherhood TV reporters working for the Al-Sharq channel were permitted to air their reports live from inside the syndicate.
The syndicate has shot itself in the foot and is exposed as having been infiltrated by fifth columnists out to find pretexts to bring down the state. Egyptians are angry and are overwhelmingly on the government’s side, as noted from social media and the furious opinions of callers to talk show hosts.
There have been counter-demonstrations organized by ordinary Egyptians waving their shoes or their fists in the air. There is a report of journalists being ejected from a minibus, another of three media personnel being asked to leave a restaurant at the behest of other customers.
The syndicate, which had instructed its members to publish the face of the interior minister in negative and ordered newspapers to blacken their front pages, has disgraced the profession. Its valid requests for greater press freedoms are now under threat.
For days, Egypt’s dailies were plastered with journalist’s gripes and threats, with little attention given to the big news of the day — the unveiling of the first phase of a project to turn one-and-a-half-million feddans of the desert green to expand Egypt’s self-sufficiency in wheat.
Most editors have now backtracked from their former hardline positions now they know the brouhaha was based on lies and evidently they didn’t count on such a severe public backlash. The result is a rancorous split within the media, which the editor of Al-Ahram attempted to heal by calling his colleagues on other papers to a meeting.
Almost all agreed that journalists are not above the law, have no business involving in politics and they decried the syndicate premises being an open house for Muslim Brotherhood TV reporters and other Egypt-unfriendly parties. Parliament was even more scathing. One MP insisted that 90 percent of the syndicate’s membership were not journalists; others called for an emergency general assembly to withdraw confidence from the syndicate board.
Lastly, I would like to get something straight. While Egypt is on the path to democracy the road remains long and strewn with boulders, as the president admits. His prime concerns are security, stability and the economy — and quite right too when he has the aspirations of 90 million people on his shoulders. And lest we forget, the country is battling Daesh in Sinai as well as violent elements, several linked to the Brotherhood.
Hundreds of military personnel and police have been killed and, on Sunday, four gunmen shot dead eight policemen while they were boarding a minibus. A claim of responsibility was received from a Brotherhood-sympathetic group called “Popular Resistance Egypt.”
Egypt bashers would do well to consider the circumstances and temper their knee-jerk sympathies with “poor, downtrodden journalists calling for freedom.” Freedom isn’t a cake, it has to be earned and I fear that the syndicate board’s cuddling of criminals, collusion with a branded terrorist group and its rewriting of events to ignite a public uprising, will unfairly tar all Egyptian journalists with the same brush.
