By Hosny Guindy When Al-Ahram Weekly hits the streets today it will have entered its 13th year of publication, having first appeared on 28 February 1991. To cite the newspaper's achievements over this period inevitably involves an element of self-praise, an embarrassment ameliorated only by the conviction that whatever its merits the Weekly has been, and continues to be, the work not of any individual, but a team. The last 12 years have not been easy. Maintaining the standards that distinguish the Weekly from rival publications has only been possible because of the dedication of its staff. The task, though, has been facilitated by the fact that the newspaper possessed a clear concept of what it should be before the very first edition went to press. Our aim has always been to produce a liberal weekly, objectively oriented, providing our readers with an unequivocally Egyptian perspective on local and regional affairs. However sensitive or potentially sensational the issues dealt with, we have endeavoured always to present them in a calm, fair- minded manner. Gradually the newspaper evolved, acquiring a distinctive character in terms of both form and content. It drew to its pages a host of distinguished names: Edward Said, Noam Chomsky, Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, Samir Amin, Fawzi Mansour and Anouar Abdel-Malek, to mention but a few of the distinguished commentators who regularly grace the pages of the paper. Al-Ahram Weekly was among the first Egyptian newspapers to be published on the Internet; the electronic edition helping expand our readership beyond national boundaries, particularly in the wake of 11 September. The Weekly Web site is currently registering 11,000 visitors per day. As a result of such developments the number of readers writing to the newspaper has risen dramatically; remembering the time when the letters to the editor occupied a quarter of page it is encouraging that we now devote a whole page to them. In the Higher Council of Journalism's annual report on journalistic practices the Weekly has consistently received a clean bill of health: never has any negative comment been voiced on the paper committing infringements of the Council's code of conduct, or of such widespread practices as blurring the distinction between advertising and journalistic material. But it is important to emphasise, in the end, that such an account of the Weekly's achievements cannot be understood to imply complacency or self satisfaction. No such feelings exist. If anything it is the opposite that is true: as we enter our 13th year our ambitions remain as limitless as they were at the beginning of the road, and it is the trust of our readers that fuels these ambitions.
