The President of the Democratic Front Party, Osama Ghazali Harb, and writer Salah Montaser had a heated debate on the national press and its role in the future at a meeting of the Culture and Media Committee of the Shoura Council [Egypt's upper chamber of Parliament]. Hard said the national press is dying day after day, while Montaser replied: "We can let it collapse in favor of a new national press". Harb, though, rejected such a statement, adding that the national press is one of the bases of the State and must not be wasted. Harb divided the press into national (representing nine institutions), partisan and independent according to their legal identities. According to him, it is important to study the future of the national press, some of which he said has become like "junk yards". He then added that these institutions have become a big economic and financial burden on the state budget, as they have many employees and their situation is getting worse and worse. Harb added that the problem, when it comes to national newspapers, is that it is now more difficult to dismantle them given how big they have become. For instance, he said al-Ahram newspaper is no longer an institution but a state in the state. He also said he was against privatizing national newspapers, although he thought they must be run more efficiently like the state-owned BBC in Great Britain. Montaser said Egypt is shifting from a state-owned to a private press which has now a considerable amount of influence even in terms of overall distribution. He added that competition among newspapers has led to more and more excesses in order to attract more readers. Therefore, he said newspapers have become like a circus where clowns try to outdo each other. Montaser pointed out that the press is ill but is developing due to the existence of an international entity representing the profession. He also affirmed there is a new source of information that many are not aware of, namely blogs. He said blogs have become a source of information like news agencies and newspapers, adding that there is somewhat more freedom now. Babawi warned of increasing chaos in the press, especially as some newspapers continue to cross some red lines and put their nose into people's private life. He denounced the way the press is being used as a tool to blackmail people, adding that no one can have a complete clear picture of what is happening in light of this chaos. Finally, he said intellectuals are against jailing journalists (they cannot be put in the same cell as thugs, he said), adding that the Syndicate of Journalists has become insignificant and that there is no respect among its members. Committee Chairman Fawzi Fahmi said it was necessary to rely on the journalistic code of ethics, adding that laws on journalist imprisonment must be clear and unequivocal. He also said journalistic empires have become fragile, adding that 20 newspapers have no influence or distribution.
