Salonaz Sami investigates why the editorial board of Al-Karama has come to appear like a game of musical chairs In recent weeks members of Al-Karama weekly newspaper's editorial board have been arriving and departing with alarming frequency. The changes began when Editor-in- Chief Hamdeen Sabahi decided to appoint Abdel-Halim Qandil, former executive editor of Al-Arabi, the mouthpiece of the Nasserist Party, as co-editor. Qandil, who is also a spokesperson for Kifaya, is widely credited as the mastermind behind Al-Arabi 's success. The Nasserist leaning Karama Party (Dignity), which has yet to obtain a license from the Political Parties Committee of the Shura Council, has been seeking official recognition since the late 1990s. Its newspaper was, however, approved by the Higher Press Council, headed by Safwat El-Sherif, in July 2005. Sabahi's decision provoked Gamal Fahmy, Al-Karama 's executive editor who had presided over the first 20 issues, to quit. "The choice I faced was between losing an old friend, Sabahi, or else losing a job," said Fahmy. "I choose to lose the job." "Qandil is a friend and a colleague," he continued, "and I wasn't about to start competing with him over power and positions. I decided I had to leave." Just 24 hours later Magdi El-Maasrawy, the chairman of Al-Karama 's board, took the same decision. He too tendered his resignation. A source in Karama Party, who is also involved with the newspaper, told Al-Ahram Weekly that El-Maasrawy's decision had taken staff unawares. "We were expecting Fahmy's resignation when Qandil came on board but we did not expect El-Maasrawy to follow him." Fahmy says that while reaching his decision was far from "easy" it was "somehow inevitable". Chairman El-Maasrawy, who owns a 45 per cent stake in the newspaper, echoed Fahmy's reasons for departing, telling the Weekly his decision to go was reached out of concern for his 30-year-old friendship with Sabahi. "Sabahi, the party and the newspaper all mean a lot to me. But I have already been in the intensive care unit once since this whole thing started. I don't want to go there again." El-Maasrawy noted that while he appreciates Qandil's qualities, believing him to be a "brilliant" journalist, he felt unable to continue working at the newspaper since Sabahi's decision to bring Qandil on board "was at the expense of Fahmy". Sources within the newspaper, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed the decision had been forced on the paper by the party. Said Shoaib, feature editor at Al-Karama, described the whole episode as an example of how the corruption prevalent in government has infected the opposition parties. "The issue," said Shoaib, "is not about Fahmy or Qandil but about practicing what you preach. It is about accepting others as equal partners and not as competitors. And I am not talking about Fahmy." The newspaper's recent problems, believes Shoaib, are a small part of a much bigger picture. All political parties and movements call for freedom and democracy yet they remain loath to practice themselves what they espouse. What should have happened, he says, is that a general assembly meeting be called so all those concerned could vote for who they wanted to be in charge of the paper. "Instead a decision was imposed and everyone was expected to accept it." Political parties in Egypt -- the NDP and the opposition -- all display authoritarian tendencies. And now, says Shoaib, " Al-Karama has shown it is no different, and this is something that has to stop."
