Will the Press Syndicate elections allow journalists to get their own house in order, wonders Shaden Shehab Magic wands are being waved once again, promising solutions to the problems facing journalists, as elections for the chairman and 12 member board of the Press Syndicate, scheduled for 17 November, approach. The five-day nomination period for posts opened on Saturday. At the time of going to press, 65 candidates had put themselves forward for council seats and four for the post of chairman. Campaigning is in full swing with candidates vowing they will scrap custodial sentences for publishing offences, provide better services and increase salaries and pensions. The promises have a familiar ring. Elections are regulated by the Press Syndicate Law 76/1976 and Law 100/1993. Law 100, which provides "democratic guarantees for trade and professional unions", stipulates that the council of professional unions will serve a four-year term. The Press Syndicate law regulates the term of the chairman, currently elected every two years and able to serve a maximum of two consecutive terms. Elections are being held at a time when many journalists feel their profession is under attack. Recent court rulings against editors and journalists have been denounced as politically motivated, and many fear that the new council and chairman will be no more successful in halting these attacks than the old. Ibrahim Eissa, editor of Al-Dostour, Wael El-Ibrashi of Sawt Al-Umma, Adel Hammouda of Al-Fagr and Abdel-Halim Qandil, the former editor of Al-Karama, have all received 12-month prison sentences, pending appeal, after being found guilty of libelling senior figures in the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). Eissa is also facing a second trial, on charges of spreading rumours concerning the health of President Hosni Mubarak. Al-Wafd 's Editor-in-Chief Anwar El-Hawari has been sentenced to a two-year jail term along with a journalist on the paper, and this week received an additional one-month sentence in a separate case. Last month many independent and opposition titles failed to appear as for one day in protest, though any further action by journalists has been halted for the duration of the election. The poll is likely to further divide journalists from the state-owned and independent press who are already at loggerheads. Other factors, too, are expected to come into play as journalists decide on which candidates to support. Some of them are material -- the majority of syndicate members make no more than LE500 a month -- and others political, with some journalists expressing concern over the role the syndicate plays vis-à-vis political parties and the protest movement. Battling over the post of chairman are Makram Mohamed Ahmed, a former Press Syndicate chairman (1997-1999), Ragai El-Merghani, the managing editor of the Middle East News Agency, Al-Ahram journalist Mohamed Youssef El-Masry and Al-Akhbar journalist Mohamed Magdy Abdel-Ghani. El-Masry and Abdel-Ghani are relatively unknown, leading many to predict that the real contest will be between Ahmed and El-Merghani. Ahmed, 72, is the former chairman of the state-owned Dar Al-Hilal and editor-in- chief of Al-Mussawwer magazine. "Some government officials love me, others despise me. I am not standing for the post to fulfil their agenda and I genuinely believe I can bridge the gap between the state and journalists and at the same time act as a compromise candidate for both Independent journalists and those working in the state-owned press," Ahmed told Al-Ahram Weekly. Though in the past he has taken stands that have not fully accorded with those of the regime, Ahmed is widely viewed as the government candidate, not least because he has the support of the editors-in- chief of all the state-owned papers. He has promised that he will press the government to amend both the press law and the penal code to abolish custodial sentences for publishing offences and withdraw ongoing cases against journalists. "If I fail in these aims within two months of being elected I intend to resign," he said during a campaign visit to Al-Ahram. He said he had already received reassurances from officials that his demands would be met, though the latest court ruling against El-Hawari has led many to suggest that whatever promises he has received will most likely ring hollow. Ahmed's campaign platform includes restricting any prosecution of journalists to the office of the prosecutor-general. He also argues that the effectiveness of the syndicate in representing journalists' interests has been compromised by internal divisions. "For two consecutive terms the council has been divided by a partisan agenda in pursuit of which the problems facing journalists have been forgotten," says Ahmed. The Press Syndicate is alone among professional unions in having avoided the divisions between Islamists and secularists that have wreaked havoc elsewhere. Ahmed, though, believes this is no longer the case and has warned that journalists affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood want to co-opt the syndicate into following their agenda. In recent years, under the chairmanship of Galal Aref, when leftists and Islamists have dominated the council, he argues, they have been quietly pursuing their goal. Mohsen Radi, a Muslim Brotherhood MP, told the Weekly that the group would not support Ahmed "because his mission is to hush journalists and stop protests from happening on the Press Syndicate's premises". In recent years, the steps leading to the entrance of the syndicate's downtown headquarters have been the sit of demonstrations of all kinds, from those staged by Kifaya to the homeless residents of Qalaat Al-Kabsh. "We will decide on Thursday [today] whether to support El-Merghani. In the meantime our main focus is to win four council seats," said Radi. Many expect the Brotherhood to actively campaign against Ahmed, who recently told Sawt Al-Umma that Mohamed Abdel-Qodous, a Brotherhood council member, was "foolish" because he engaged in seemingly continuous protests. Indeed, some journalists are already circulating a petition condemning Ahmed's nomination on the grounds that he had slandered a fellow journalist in breach of the profession's code of ethics. The Muslim Brotherhood is thought to control 600 out of a total of 5,000 votes and in a closely fought battle their influence could determine the result of the elections. Ahmed's rival, El-Merghani, is known as a staunch Nasserist. He has twice served on the council, occupying a seat between 1995 to 2003, but then failing to win a third term. He worked closely on the drafting of the press law, though as the managing editor of a press agency he enjoys a lower profile than regular newspaper columnists. He enjoys the support of the current chairman Galal Aref, and of the newly formed Group for the Independence of Journalists whose avowed aim is "to confront the harsh government attack that wants to limit the syndicate's role in defending freedom". The group comprises mainly journalists with Nasserist tendencies and is spearheaded by Aref. "El-Merghani is supported by journalists who do not want the syndicate to become an arm of the government," Secretary- General of the Press Syndicate Yehia Qallash told the Weekly. Ahmed's response is that for independence to mean anything, the syndicate must be financially autonomous. Yet Aref, he points out, petitioned the government for LE13 million to top up the syndicate's pension fund and finance other services. "I am all for independence," says Ahmed. "It is just that there is a long way to go before we achieve it." Ahmed also insists he is not against the syndicate being used as a venue for protests though these "must be organised according to the consensus of the majority of the council and not on the orders of the Muslim Brotherhood". That the 12-member Press Council is divided more than ever between leftists and Islamists may play badly for El-Merghani, with many journalists expressing concern that the syndicate is preoccupied with political disputes at the expense of improving the conditions of the profession. Candidates for council seats are drawn from across the political spectrum and include members of the ruling National Democratic Party, liberals and leftists alongside Islamists. Leading commentator Salama Ahmed Salama predicts that the coming elections "will not only be fierce but ugly". He has already detected a coarsening in the usual level of debate and expects things to get worse as the poll draws closer.
