The sentence handed down by the Administrative Judiciary Court last April 7 reminded me of the abolition of the license of the magazine Ibda'a of the book I had written 33 years ago, entitled "Egyptian press in a democratic battle" chronicling the battle of the brave Egyptians journalists who fought in 1951, against what was known in those days by "legislation in the press," which reached its peak, while the Egyptian press stopped its publication on June 5, 1951, to protest against this legislation for the for the first and last time in Egypt. There were no newspapers, forcing the government to back down and therefore withdraw such a legislation which was designed to be launched by the Government to cancel the newspapers. And the origin of the story is that the Committee which drafted the Constitution of 1923, had ended - after lengthy discussions - to the formulation of article 15 which relates to the freedom of the press and states that the "press is free within the law." Censorship of the press is banned and newspaper warning, suspension or revocation of the administrative path is prohibited as well," but the State Committee, which reviewed the draft constitution and added "only if it is necessary for the protection of social order."
The supplement of article 15 of the 1923 Constitution remained the subject of controversy and conflict between journalists and government dictatorship over the past thirty years of the constitution's life. Although there was an explanatory memorandum to the government added by the Constitution, pointing out that the risk referred to by the supplement, which calls for protecting the social order, is the danger of Bolshevism calls - that is socialism and communism - and that the purpose of this addendum is to provide an opportunity "to establish legislation to combat such advocacy." The Egyptian government has exploited it in various covenants under the pretext of the overthrow of opposition newspaper, to justify the closure and so it expanded the concept of prevention and social order. So it is no longer threatened by the danger of Bolshevism or communism, but a government's opposition. Even Ismail Sidqi's dictatorship decided in June 15, 1930 to disrupt the three daily newspapers and a daily ransom of the "Albalagh," "Kawkab Alshark" and "Alyoum", because it had published the news of demonstrations opposing them in a favorable light of those involved. It shook the system and the pillars of social life and cracked its infrastructure, which allowed the government - according to the rule of the addendum – to put a final stop to it, and the authorization of the Minister of the Interior the power to block all other newspapers concealing the name of the newspaper in question. In July 11, 1946 the Council of Ministers - also headed by Ismail Pasha Sedki - decided to stop 11 Egyptian daily and weekly newspapers, based on the addendum section 15 of the Constitution, and citing the closure of these newspapers that it is necessary for the protection of social order because it publishes false news and the revolutionary approaches with the intent to cause disorder and disruption in daily life, and to raise sedition and unrest in the country. Sedki was questioned by Atef in the Senate, where the opposition was concentrated. In response he tried to demonstrate models published by the cancelled newspapers, to show that it was threatening the social order, but the President of the Senate and President of the Liberal Party, who was involved in Sedki's government, left the presidential platform to show his opinion on the issue leaving the platform, to participate in the discussion to state that the addendum of article 15 – as with all articles of the Constitution – is a letter to the legislator and not the government, and the Council of Ministers erred in disallowing the decision of these newspapers, and that he should make the draft law define the meaning of the social order, and the kinds of dangers that newspapers pose, and emergency situations which allows for the abolition of the press. Sedki could not but recognize the validity of all this and to submit a bill to that effect... but he resigned before presenting it. The problem flared up in January 1951, when the Alwafd government abolished the newspaper "Masr Alfatah/Alishtirakiya" based on the addendum section 15 of the Constitution, and the slap was repeated when the Administrative Court passed the State Council, chaired then by its Abdel Razeq Alsanhory Pasha ruled the rescinding of the decision, on the basis that the articles of the Constitution are not self-executing, and that it addresses the Sharaa and not the government nor the judge, and the Department may not abolish newspapers based on the rule of the addendum unless a legislation was introduced to regulate this! The government hastened to push one of its deputies to submit a draft law for the application of the rule of the addendum, which gives it the right to cancel the closure of newspapers and if it is proved that it has published false news, statements or tendentious campaigns or other issues of incitement and excitement etc. Journalists rioted and decided to hide their newspapers and the government withdrew the legislation. A year later the Constitution of 1923 was abolished and Article 15 disappeared. The addendum disappeared and instead there were new constitutions that do not contain any reference to it, or so I thought, until I was alerted by the closure of the Ibda'a magazine that the addendum is back, and it plunged into the Constitution of 1971, among the amendments introduced by President Sadat in 1980, adding to a chapter out of six articles entitled "the authority of the press."
Article 207 referred to the freedom of the press in the "framework of the basic components of society," and was the "addendum," which is based on the merits of the provision to cancel the license of Ibda'a, where it was to find any provision in law or in the Constitution authorizing the cancellation of newspaper permits! This week, the book association, the publisher of the canceled magazine, appealed the rule of cancellation before the Supreme Administrative Court as the time has come, to join together all those concerned with the freedom of the press, and concerned not to settle the legal rule established by the rule of cancellation, from the Press Syndicate of the Union of Writers to civil society organizations to the international bodies concerned with freedom of the press seeing that it is an Egyptian press battle to cut appendices. It is the title of my book that I've forgotten.
