It was a
coincidence that I started working in journalism at the end of 1979 after
jailing and banning from work put an end to my career as a researcher that was
said to be promising in the field of contemporary and modern history of Egypt. It
was also a coincidence that I have been running the office of one of the
biggest newspapers in Arab Gulf countries in Cairo for 30 years. And again, it
was a coincidence that I had the ability to decipher the poor handwriting of
many big-name writers and revise the articles of tens of journalists whom some
of them became TV stars. I used to edit some of those articles and almost go
mad of the spelling and grammar mistakes some journalists make, while some
others have no journalistic integrity at all. And so, I have been calling upon
the journalists’ syndicate to stand to such cultural, political and even
ethical illiteracy spread in journalism, to the extent that some of those inefficient
so-called journalists who made it to the editor-in-chief position and became popular
media anchors are even boasting about this and consider themselves genius despite
their complete journalistic illiteracy.
Again, it
happened many times that I had many colleagues interested in the union work and
who became “professional” in that. I also met many of those hosted by those
“professionals” during their preparations for the elections of the syndicate
board of trustees or the syndicate head. In such regard, there are many details
that I may write about and publish later… according to my point of view of
course. I remember when I once disagreed to the unanimity of some Nasserist
journalists to elect a certain person for the syndicate head chair, and so, I
wrote advocating his opponent and the punishment I had for this was preventing
me from writing my column in the Nasserist Al-Arabi newspaper, not to mention
the defamation campaigns that attacked me.
My dear
colleagues of the syndicate leaders fighting for the journalistic and public
freedoms know well all what I know about some other syndicate leaders who are
actually diagnosed with that disease of journalistic illiteracy. They also know
about others who made illegal use of Hajj and Umra trips,
consumer durables, lands, real estates, advertisements, Shiekh al-Fasi and who have
normalized relations with the Zionists and enlisted some of their secretaries
and cronies as members in the syndicate. Despite all these flagrant breaches of
the professional and ethical norms of journalism, the syndicate has not adopted
a decisive stance towards any of those. I am even ready to give more details.
This is while journalists are going through what we can call a true battle in
favor of the journalistic freedoms and enacting both texts and soul of the
Egyptian constitution concerning journalism. I do what I do because I believe
the best way to guarantee the journalistic freedoms and journalists’ rights is
that journalists – through their syndicate and top leaders – should take on the
responsibility of assuming their main duties, atop of them is re-training
hundreds of journalism-illiterate journalists.
We have to
regulate the professional performance of our career so that journalism does not
become the back door for stabbing our country in its safety, destiny, cohesion,
strength, balance and role played in its geographical circumference and the
world. We do not want the journalist to be that doctor ironically said to have
publicly declared that he sacrificed the mother and baby lives for the
operation to succeed!
I do wonder:
when will the journalists’ syndicate start to question some of its members,
considering themselves stars in media and political work, about suspicions
arising to actual facts regarding their fortunes, projects, connections to
media and politics funding sources both inside the country and abroad? There
are even facts that they combine between journalism and working for other
authorities.
We all stand
against any abuse committed by the executive authority over the constitution,
even if approved by the law. We are also against any abuse of any kind or
degree practiced by any entity that draws us back to the time that led to the
dismantling, destruction and terrorism we suffer from right now, not to mention
that such abuse is committed against journalism and freedom of expression. For
all this, we all have to stand against all what I mentioned above concerning
our journalism community affairs.
I know some dear
friends who will get angry when they read these lines and I can almost hear
them blaming and saying: “this is always you… you always choose the bad timing
to express your opinion… all what you say is right but the timing is definitely
not right… you should not mention the bad things while we are going through a
decisive battle like this”. However, I believe it is the best timing to discuss
such things. The battle timing is the most suitable time to correct mistakes,
rectify faults and to get rid of intruders. It is not the journalists’ battle alone;
it is battle of the whole nation. Our nation is fighting a battle fiercer and
more ferocious than all its fights throughout history since the Hyksos,
Persian, Greek and Roman invasions and reaching to the British and Israeli
occupations.
While the
army, police and people are fighting this battle, we cannot let some of us stab
the country in the back by writing and publishing misleading information that
may attack those fighters and make the public lose trust in the nation’s
leaders; those who defend the nation’s independence, civilization, culture and
future. And so, the necessity to defend the journalistic rights is directly
connected to the necessity to defend the nation.
I have to say
what I say as our country is going through great dangers. We cannot stay silent
and pretend everything is going fine. As to the timing thing, I totally
disagree to this opinion. If we had political stability, economic welfare and high-level
security not breached by terrorism or enemies extending from Ankara to Tel Aviv
to Doha, I would have stayed silent about the faults of our journalistic
community. However, we live in totally different circumstances that necessitate
adopting the hard way to correct the whole national course that should include
all communities no matter how prestigious or sacred these communities are.
I believe the
biggest fight journalists and their syndicate should go through is doing their
best to rectify and reform the journalistic community. As to those angry of the
timing thing, I ask them: when is that right timing that we never had through
more than half a century in the syndicate lifetime? Why has no one dared to
start reforming and correcting the course in other times when the syndicate was
not going through sacred battles?
This article
was published in Almasry alyoum newspaper in July 14, 2015.
To see the
original article, go to:
#almasry_alyoum
#ahmed_elgammal #journalists #Egypt
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