Cairo- A number of Egyptian journalists initiated their proposals regarding the national dialogue that President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi called for a month ago, considering that the “Fourth Authority” is the most affected by the current political situation due to the restrictions imposed on it.
The journalists’ observations and demands are close to those announced by movements, currents, political parties, and civil society and human rights organizations, because they intersect with them in the majority of the proposed points, such as the release of detained journalists, lifting the ban on press websites, and easing restrictions imposed on freedom of the press and expression of opinion.
Egypt and other Arab countries are at the bottom of the annual World Press Freedom Index for 2022, which was issued by Reporters Without Borders in early May. The index assesses the state of press freedom in 180 countries and regions annually.
According to the International Press Freedom Index, Egypt was at the bottom of the list, ranking 168, and the organization relies on 5 factors in its assessment: the political context, the legal framework, the economic context, the social and cultural context, and safety and security.
Several journalists launched a petition to be signed by the press group, to demand the necessary steps and observations to be taken by the union and by the authorities regarding the form of the invitation addressed to members of the General Assembly and creating the atmosphere for the success of the dialogue.
The Syndicate of Journalists Diaa Rashwan – who welcomed the national dialogue – had issued a statement a few days ago in which he called on the members of the union to send their proposals regarding press issues in the national dialogue called for by the National Training Academy, which Sisi assigned to manage the dialogue.
Rashwan suggested that the press group’s proposals be related to 3 axes, the first of which is legislative, including laws related to the press, the second is related to professional practice, and the third is labor and union conditions.
In turn, the signatories stressed that the petition However, equal dialogue and the participation of all segments of society in presenting visions and discussing ways to get out of the current impasse will not be possible without the availability of favorable conditions for democratic dialogue.
They demanded that necessary steps be taken to prepare the atmosphere before the start of the dialogue, such as:
- Editing the press and the media as the main platform for this dialogue.
- Release all journalists imprisoned in publishing and opinion cases, and release prisoners of conscience.
- Release freedom of criticism and expression, stop prolonged pretrial detention and arrest citizens for expressing their opinions.
- Opening the public sphere and allowing different forces to express their views, and giving the media the opportunity to convey different points of view.
- Unblocking websites, and liberating the press from the siege imposed on it.
- Liberating the public sphere from restrictions that prevent unions, civil society organizations, and parties from moving and working freely.
The journalists who signed the petition believe that the demand for a free press is not a factional demand, and it does not come only from the fact that it is a right of society in all its categories that cannot be derogated from, but also from the fact that it has become a necessity for the success of this dialogue.
Among the signatories were former Syndicate of Journalists Yahya Qalash, current members of the Syndicate Council, Hisham Younes, Mahmoud Kamel, Muhammad Saad Abdel Hafeez, and former agents, including Khaled El Balshy, Jamal Fahmy, Mohamed Abdel Quddous, and former Secretary General of the Syndicate of Journalists Karem Mahmoud, and former members such as Hamdeen Sabahi, Ibrahim Mansour and Hanan Fikri and Amr Badr.
Variation of reactions
The reactions of the press group varied, as did the reactions of the Egyptian political forces at home and abroad, between supporters and opponents, regarding Sisi’s call for a political dialogue, which is the first of its kind since he took power in 2014, in light of unprecedented economic challenges the country is going through.
The call culminated in the re-formation of the presidential pardon committee and the release of dozens, including politicians, journalists and activists, and days later one of its outcomes was the announcement of the National Training Academy (affiliated with the presidency, established in 2017) to start implementing Sisi’s directives regarding preparation for political dialogue.
On the political level, the head of the Karama Party, Ahmed Al-Tantawi, said that the civil forces are facing difficult choices, and are looking at the invitation with cautious anticipation, according to previous experiences with the authority, noting that the national movement refuses to have the dialogue under the auspices of the National Training Academy.
On the journalistic level, journalist and writer Anwar al-Hawari said that if such a dialogue took place, it would have only two goals. The first is to exempt the ruling regime from accountability for the harvest of the eight years that end in the middle of this year.
As for the other goal, it is to give the regime a traffic certificate or a second authorization to complete in power for the next 8 years, ending according to the plan in 2030, meaning that it is a new authorization, but in a different form and output, according to his description.
The system surrounds itself
For his part, the journalist, former deputy director of the Middle East News Agency, Ahmed Hassan Al-Sharqawi, refuted the call for national dialogue, and said that “the regime is dialogue with itself, and it is a one-sided dialogue, and as in English, it is “monolog” and not “dialog,” and the call of the Syndicate of Journalists affiliated with the regime. To engage in dialogue is a call to support the regime.”
Al-Sharqawi added to Al-Jazeera Net that the Journalists Syndicate in its current state is part of the system, with the exception of some voices in the Syndicate Council, which has always been an expression of the press group from various political currents, unlike the Al-Naqib website, indicating that the authority’s response to the demands of journalists is unexpected.
He stressed that this dialogue is a new attempt by the economically crisis-stricken authority to buy time, and many of the parties to the dialogue are part of the system, and accepting dialogue is accepting the continuation of the system and helping it to survive and continue, as he put it.
