Said Shoaib: Newspapers in Egypt, in all their orientations, serve only individuals, and their editors-in-chief have no role except to preserve their chairs, and the Syndicate is just a back garden for political currents.

Yesterday evening, Wednesday, Maat Center held a symposium on “the impact of politics on the press” that dealt with the reality of professional freedom in Egyptian newspapers and the influence of political currents on journalists, whether within the national newspapers that have become controlled by the government or those affiliated with opposition parties that express the mouth of their real owners or private newspapers. Which recently appeared on the press scene in the form of joint stock companies.

Professor / Ayman Aqil, Director of the Modern Center, began by defining one of the historians of politics from the point of view, Dr. Gad Taha, as “the art of foolishness” and that politics is one of the basic factors to direct the media process in the world, and within the framework of that was the attempt of some journalists to undermine the sanctity of religions and from that campaign The raid led by Daniel Pipes, the imperialist Zionist, against the Messenger Muhammad (PBUH) and his insistence on pursuing some Arab thinkers such as Edward Said and Professor Rashid Al-Khalidi, and his order against the Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-up of the Arab League.

The guest of the seminar, Mr. Saeed Shuaib, spoke about the impact of politics on the professional performance of journalists, denouncing the professional reality of journalism and measuring journalistic performance according to political criteria or the idea of loyalty to a party movement or to a person represented in the chairman of the board of directors, the editor-in-chief or the head of the party - as discussed by Professor / Shoaib In his talk about the phenomenon of newspapers called independent newspapers, rejecting that name because they do not express the reality of the fact that these newspapers are private newspapers that only express the interests of their owners and do not criticize what happened to the national newspapers in terms of the subjugation and control of the ruling party over them and their becoming the tongue that speaks in their name because it is the case of newspapers. Also, this is why the press scene has become just an arena for insults between stakeholders and influence, amid the absence of the true role of the press, and this was behind the absence of the reader's mind and the control of the press of psychological cleansing and the political tribal region.

In a comment by Mr. Saeed Shuaib on the role of the Journalists Syndicate and its impact on political currents, he attacked the Journalists Syndicate, accusing it of being the back garden of political currents, rejecting its tendencies to protect a certain group of journalists without the other group according to accounts not related to its role in protecting the rights of the profession of journalism or journalists, but according to Due to the logic of double standards, how can a union in which the employer and the worker be represented, and the employer is decided upon, i.e. he is the opponent and the ruling is that it be a body that expresses the interest of all its members without external influence

Therefore, it is not surprising that the Council of the Syndicate cheered those who attack the government and considered him the bearer of the banner of freedom in return for abandoning the young journalists demanding the least of their professional rights in confronting the same person whom the Council considered the official spokesman in the name of freedoms and leaving the problems of young journalists without solutions and the guest of the seminar added - so the Council intervenes to solve The problems of colleagues in the national newspapers are not, in fact, out of concern for their interests, as it is a plot in their boards of directors and trading in the issue, as evidenced by the failure of the council to protect the rights of journalists wasted in many party newspapers, one of which is Al-Arabi Al-Nasseri

Therefore, Mr. Said Shuaib called for an independent union that brings together heads of boards of directors to follow the Lebanese model, as well as the necessity of separating the positions of the press institution and the editorial administration, in addition to the urgent necessity to amend the Syndicate Law, which allows a journalist to register in the Syndicate only after undermining his dignity and leaving prey to the owner of the press institution So that he can obtain a humiliation contract (work contract) that constitutes an entry point for a registration in the Syndicate of Journalists.

In response to a question about the truth of the dialogue he had with Mahdi Akef, the General Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Shuaib said: The dialogue was not fully published in Al-Karamah newspaper, and despite the support of the Executive Editor Jamal Fahmy, Hamdeen Sabahi's political accounts with the group during the parliamentary elections made him remove the 40% from the dialogue, and I regretted it. On posting it

Shuaib added: The guide went out afterwards on Orbit TV, trying to accuse me of blasphemy, without anyone moving to respond to him, and one of the group’s representatives, Saad Khalifa, made an urgent statement and a report to the Attorney General accusing me of contempt of the Islamic religion, disbelief and support for Satanists.

(Mr. Shuaib concluded his speech on the right of journalists to have a union that expresses them, stressing that the most dangerous defect of Gamal Abdel Nasser, who has many advantages, is the nationalization of newspapers to become part of the ruling system, and with the emergence of the parties they used the same mechanisms and rejected union pluralism)

At the end of the symposium, Mr. Ayman Aqeel affirmed the Center's support for the various opinions calling for freedom of expression and disagreement with the other, based on its belief that difference is the way for a democratic society to allow the existence of the opinion and the other opinion without imposing restrictions on ideas or accusing their owners of extremism or infidelity.

As for the professional aspect of the journalistic work, the Center considers the necessity of separating the profession of journalism from being influenced by political currents, and that the judgment on the journalistic performance should be in accordance with professional standards so that the rights of the journalist within his organization are not undermined for the account of his colleagues, the sons of the party or those close to the decision-makers in a manner that leads to corruption of the media climate Who demands more freedom for his men to be able to confront corruption and the corrupt.