Al-Destour newspaper is back after being banned for seven years. Mona El-Nahhas sifts through its pages and interviews its chief editor After seven years, Al-Destour, or (The Constitution), an independent weekly newspaper, took its place back on the newsstands. Despite the long absence from the scene, the newspaper came back with a vengeance, resurfacing on 23 March with a defiant claim that despite the government ban, its position had not changed. In its comeback issue, Al-Destour dedicated its 28 pages, using articles but mainly cartoons, in portraying its view of the government's initiative for reform and democracy. Strong criticism of ministers was a remarkable feature of the newspaper's first return issue. While one article blamed officials for failing to communicate with the public, another questioned the apparent wealth of some officials compared to their well-known sources of income. On democracy, Al-Destour ran a story comparing Iraq under the Baath Party and Egypt under the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). Al-Destour sold 70,000 in its latest premiere, saying there were no "red lines" in its coverage of the most sensitive issues. In an interview, Al-Destour 's Editor- in-Chief Ibrahim Eissa told Al-Ahram Weekly that since it was first issued in 1995, the policy of the newspaper did not and will not change. "We remain against corruption, terrorism and Israel, a policy to which we are committed, the way a state is committed to its Constitution. That is why our newspaper was named so," Eissa said. In the paper's editorial, Eissa wrote that the years of hardship that his newspaper had passed through only added to its perseverance to pursue "the goals and aspirations upon which we were established". He said the newspaper was more concerned with analysing domestic events and policies "rather than wasting our energy in theories of conspiracies". He added that Egyptians ought to give priority to criticising themselves and their regime before blaming others for their failures. "It is not heroic to blame the Bush administration or the West for our crisis," he noted. Eissa's determination to continue what he started brought to the fore the question of whether this will cost him another banning of the newspaper. "To be honest," Eissa said, "what worries me more than the newspaper's continuity is the quality of coverage we provide and the influence we have." He said the main reason Al-Destour readers had not forgotten the newspaper even though it has been out of circulation since 1998 was "its unique and daring" style. "Hence, I will never make any concessions." It is that perseverance that got the newspaper in trouble more than once. On three separate occasions, copies were confiscated and later the newspaper's licence suspended after it was accused of sensationalism and publishing a dubious statement by then Egypt's most militant Islamic group, the underground Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya. The statement contained death threats against three Coptic businessmen. Attempts by the newspaper's editorial board to lift the ban were made throughout the hiatus. "We used all possible means to make a comeback, by issuing statements, holding press conferences and appealing to the courts," Eissa said. Despite a ruling from the Supreme Administrative Court in April 2001 in favour of Al-Destour, its publishers had to wait until December 2004 when the Supreme Press Council, an affiliate of the Shura Council which is authorised to license newspapers, granted them a licence of their own. Still, Eissa could not launch Al- Destour 's first issue until this month having previously agreed with the chairman of the liberal Al-Ghad Party, Ayman Nour, to be chief editor of Nour's mouthpiece Al-Ghad. That did not go as planned following Nour's arrest in January on charges of forgery and his upcoming trial in June. Also, Eissa noted, "after reflecting on the matter and recalling previous experiences with several opposition newspapers, the majority of which reflect the personal views of their chairman rather than the party's agenda, I decided it would be better to be responsible for my newspaper." Eissa said pressure from the outside urging more democracy and reform in Egypt might be one of the main reasons behind his newspaper's re-appearance. He argued that in a bid to prove its good intentions, the state had been forced to take measures to change its image in the eyes of the public, "the same way an old lady seeks a facelift".
