Six years on from the untimely death of the founder and editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram Weekly, the newspaper still basks in the glow of his rich legacy, writes Ayman El-Amir "Do they let you publish these critical articles without censorship or interference?" my friend G Elaish, who is a former senior official of the United Nations, asked in wonderment. He was referring to some of the articles I, among others, wrote for this newspaper, which he bought regularly at a newsstand near his residence in Connecticut. He was amazed by the extent of the liberal and critical views that appeared in Al-Ahram Weekly, every week. My friend had left Egypt in the mid-1960s to work for the international organisation and had strong reminiscences of the media freedom that prevailed at the time -- the freedom to compete in praising the 1952 "revolution", its leaders, the democracy of censorship, the freedom of mass arrests, detention and torture and Egypt's forced social transformation that was reversed less than 10 years later. During this era, Egypt's State Information Service published a restricted- distribution bulletin called "The Newspaper of World Newspapers". It carried excerpts of a select number of stories published by international newspapers and newsmagazines about the Middle East, the Arabs and Egypt. The general Egyptian public was not allowed to read such critical or revealing articles; they had a Ministry of National Guidance that literally guided them to what they should or should not know. A small category of Egyptian intellectuals learned to listen to the BBC World Service, in English or Arabic, to know some facts about what was happening in their own country. It was through these broadcasts that they learned, for example, of the shocking fact that Israel had wiped out the Egyptian air force on the ground during the first few hours of the first day of the June 1967 war. At the same time, the popular "Sawt ul Arab" (The Voice of the Arabs) was blaring out frenzied news bulletins about the 37 Israeli warplanes downed by the Egyptian air defence forces in the early hours of the war. The enduring credibility crisis this left on the Egyptians was devastating as much as it was indelible. It was in this environment that the late Hosny Guindy, the founder and first editor- in-chief of the Weekly, made his debut in journalism at Al-Ahram daily newspaper. He had to bow to the dictates of this environment but never lost sense of what real journalism was about -- he had the privilege of reading foreign newspapers and magazines that were made available by Al-Ahram to the staff of its foreign desk. When he was given the green light to start the Weekly, Hosny straddled the old world of free-press-by-censorship which he had endured for almost 25 years, and the burgeoning press environment with the so- called "margin of democracy", including a conditional free press. Not only did he capture the new opportunity but he also became one of the main contributors to nurturing it. He was keenly aware of the many challenges he faced. He was offered the chance of a lifetime to found an English language newspaper with a limited circulation in a predominantly Arabic-speaking country. He also knew that the conditional free press environment that developed was only a test, a door that was opened ajar and could be quickly slammed shut at the first sign of transgression. Indeed, some of the independent newspapers that took the new environment as a license for vendetta against the government and its leaders were either sued for libel or simply had their licenses revoked. Some scandal-touting newspapers survived. However, Hosny had a different approach, to publish a newspaper that took maximum advantage of the new environment of limited tolerance towards a free press with a deep sense of responsibility towards the reader and the truth. In Hosny's view, the success of the Weekly depended neither on government approval nor the enthusiastic support of a scandal-hungry slice of readership, but on earning the readers' respect for its liberal, balanced and responsible brand of journalism and opinion columns. For news stories Hosny depended on a staff of young and ambitious university graduates and journalists; for opinion writers he tirelessly sought seasoned writers and intellectuals. His role was to meticulously ensure the balance and fairness of every word that appeared in the Weekly. Hosny's challenges did not end there. He was in the unique position of managing a liberal newspaper that was funded by a conservative, government-controlled institution where editors and directors coveted the carrot and feared the stick. Hosny's only chance to keep the institution at bay was to ensure that whatever story or opinion column the Weekly carried was defensible. For an English language newspaper published in Egypt to have an impact beyond the country's borders needed skill and ingenuity. Under Hosny's management, the Weekly was among a handful of Egyptian newspapers that published an online edition to reach out to a wider readership all over the world. Its online readership today is more than fourfold its print copy distribution. The Weekly' s editorial policy was responsibly liberal. It reflected a wide variety of opinions that, more than anything else, shaped the direction of the paper. This included the opinions it often published by readers who criticised the paper or its writers. It was as much critical of the Egyptian government as it was of the policies and attitudes of Western governments, topped by the US. The overriding considerations by which Hosny guided the paper were professionalism and the truth, without fear of consequences or favour to anyone. The tradition the Weekly boasts of until today is owed to those early days, in 1991 and subsequent years that made the paper what it is. On the sixth anniversary of Hosny's departure from this life, it is good to remember that he was one of a kind.
