CAIRO: Tens of Egyptian journalists organized a protest at the entrance of the press syndicate on Wednesday, condemning the interference of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in the media. The SCAF, Egypt highest authority in the transitional period following the Egyptian revolution earlier this year, has come under fire for confiscating two newspapers in one week. An issue of the Sout al-Umma opposition newspaper was confiscated while at the Ahram printing house for an article about the Egyptian intelligence in late September. A few days later an issue of Rosa al-Youssef newspaper was also confiscated for an article about an Israeli spy. The protest is part of a larger campaign against SCAF censorship of press and scores of journalists are joining the campaign that calls for a general strike on November 1. “The idea for the strike came after Ismael Etman, military council spokesman and head of the moral committee, sent a fax to all newspapers editors-in-chief asking them not to publish any material related to the SCAF or the army without a written approval from the military intelligence and his department,” journalist al-Husseiny Abou Zeid, an organizer and administrator of the Facebook campaign leading the strike told Bikyamasr.com. The campaign titled “no for the military interference in press” strongly condemns the SCAF's censorship and mobilizes journalists to join the strike. The fax Abou Zeid is referring to was sent last week and it contains direct orders from Etman to newspapers to not publish any news, reports, ads or photos without referring back to the council, in a direct violation of freedom of press, partially guaranteed by law. “This is a new tool to crackdown on the press along with the presence of a military officer who acts as an editorial supervisor on content at the al-Ahram printing house,” Abou Zeid said. Al-Ahram printing house is the leading printhouse in the country where most newspapers are printed and it was the scene of where the newspapers were confiscated last week and thousands of copies were shredded before a revised issue was printed. According to Abou Zeid, 40 leading writers and editors have already joined the campaign and will publish a blank space instead of the routine column. On Wednesday, three leading opinion columnists withheld their weekly commentary in protest against the SCAF. Nagla Beder, Bilal Fadl and Omar Taher left their columns blanks with a few words explaining why they took their decision. “I withhold my writing today in protest of the banning, confiscation of newspapers and the presence of military censorship there,” the writers put in their columns. More journalists and writers are expected to join the campaign, which is gaining momentum in the days leading to the planned strike. BM
