The council of Egypt's Syndicate of Journalists made a mistake when it did not fulfill duties of helping the public prosecutor's decisions of arresting two colleagues be implemented and then assigning lawyers for their defense according to the Code of Criminal Procedure, leaving the impression that journalists want to be above the law. The syndicate fell in another mistake when it opened its doors for political currents hostile to the state and allied with the Brotherhood terror group to settle accounts with the state and the regime of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in particular. The Interior Ministry made a mistake for not abiding by the legal track that requires notifying the head of the syndicate to attend himself or to dispatch a deputy of his to attend the arrest operation as well as a member of the public prosecution. It also made another mistake with not taking into account the country's volatile political situation amid some powers' pursuit to undermine the state by igniting fires while the country is in a bad need to be united and solidarity in the face of crises. And now, after the incident has already occurred, I give my advice to wise people on both sides to stand in the face of opponents of the state and the bidders on this nation. I have condemned what happened to our great institution, the citadel of free speech in Egypt and the Arab world, and made an urgent statement to determine the circumstances of the first-ever incident in the syndicate's long history. But I see that the situation is going toward the creation of a crisis between the community of journalists and the state, the crisis will not come out with a winner except the advocates of chaos. Hence, my suggestions come as follows: First: The formation of a facts finding committee of the elders of the profession and they are many to discuss what happened and discover glitches to suggest way-outs. Second: The council of the syndicate commits to excluding partisan elements of and reject slogans that insult journalists and syndicate before acting against the state's symbol, and immediately engage in a bilateral dialogue with the Interior Ministry and the presidency institution to find a unified vision that satisfies all parties and rule out the clash between the two sides. Third: The formation of a permanent committee of the syndicate and the public prosecution to defuse the crisis between the press and the state before they occur. In my opinion, the policy of each party to press on the other, or waiting for the factor of time to settle the crisis will only lead to another crisis for which all of us will pay the price in the near future.
