The Supreme Council of the Press issues a periodical report on the Egyptian national and independent papers. When I read the recent report, I felt that I missed "Her Majesty" the press where I worked throughout my life. Therefore, I decided to search for such a press. After questions and investigations, I knew that it is no longer in Egypt! I heard that it is now in London where some Arab newspapers are issued. These newspapers are increasingly accepted by the Arabs because they provide press service that could not be provided by the Egyptian press now.
I wondered how Egypt could not issue such newspapers. Indeed, Egypt is the birthplace of the press. It started to issue papers in the early 19th century and provided the Arab press with generations of great journalists, such as Omar Makram, Refaa Tahtawi, Abbas Mahmoud Aqad, Taha Hussein, Mohamed al-Tabei, Mustafa Amin, Ali Amin and Mohamed Hassanein Haykal. How could the press leave its birthplace and go to this cold exile? I imagined that the press is a queen who left Egypt due to the bad environment. I asked one of my friends to give me her telephone number so that I may convince her to return to Egypt. I said: Please, give me her phone number and I'll convince her to return to her homeland. She loves me because I served her for some 40 years. In addition, I was a chief editor.
My friend: Do not tell her that you were a chief editor lest she would refuse to talk to you. She hates chief editors and thinks that they are the main reason behind the deterioration of the Egyptian press. She thinks that chief editors lack decorum.
I said: Let me try, she should return.
My friend: She will never return in light of the current libel and slander, which you call the freedom of the press. Before such a freedom, some Egyptian newspapers were among the biggest world papers, but now they turned into libel and slander papers.
I said: This has nothing to do with the freedom of the press. The previous rank of our papers among the world leading newspapers has nothing to do with the absence of this freedom. It is a purely professional issue. The main problem is that we abandoned the professional rules and ethical considerations, which will return to Egypt only if Her Majesty returned. In fact, Egypt is still the homeland of the most prestigious press institutions in the entire region. It is suffice that some of these institutions are older than some of the world countries.
My friend: You confuse between cause and effect. Her Majesty left the country due to these deteriorating conditions, and not vice versa. Do not think that the papers' conditions deteriorated due to the absence of Her Majesty. You should know that she will return only if the conditions of these papers improved. I said: I want to say that Her Majesty was born here and this is her home. Her absence is unacceptable. I will do my best to persuade her to return. You should only tell me how I can contact her.
My friend: Oh, it is not a problem of persuasion.
I said: What then is the matter?
My friend: The laws of the profession itself do not allow the presence of Her Majesty amid this filth, which has become the main story of your newspapers these days. Every creature lives in a certain environment, if this environment changed, the creature would emigrate or died and became extinct. Fortunately, there are still other conditions that allow a good press. The distribution of some Arab newspapers, which are published abroad, exceeded the distribution of any Egyptian newspaper. This is because they did not waste their time in searching for scandals, accusations and insults. They managed to provide a good press service, respect the reader's mentality, and publish the world news accompanied by good analysis and commentary.
I said: But all this was here and not elsewhere. My friend: It was. I said: It will return if Her Majesty returned. My friend: Oh! You are stubborn and do not want to understand. I said: You are biased, hateful and ignorant. My friend: Have not I told you that chief editors lack decorum?
