CAIRO: President of the Journalists' Syndicate Makram Mohammed Ahmed played down concerns over the decision of the Central Audit Bureau (CAB) to monitor the independent press in Egypt. The State Council issued a decree last Tuesday which gave the CAB authority to monitor and audit the financial, administrative and legal aspects of any independent or privately-owned media in Egypt which has led to concerns that this will be the way to control the content of the independent media or even silence voices of dissent. Ahmed told Daily News Egypt, "I haven't seen a law yet, but one of our problems is that the government was asking about sources of funding and so makes it harder to issue new newspapers. "The Saudis want to influence things here, the Libyans want to and so do the Americans, so if this law really addresses these issues then I don't see it impeding press freedom, he added. Ahmed stated as an example that trade syndicates, which are also subject to CAB audits, have not had their political stances curbed in any way. "Some think it will be tantamount to censorship, Ahmed said, "and are afraid of interference in the daily running of the press, and this is a legitimate fear. But it benefits us if it is really about funding only, in that case I don't see any danger. Only if there is [editorial] interference does it become a problem. The syndicate chief also said that from his personal experience as a former editor in chief of a newspaper he had no problems with the CAB. However, he was referring to state-run newspapers which do not oppose the government line in any case. "The CAB usually has a permanent office or representative on the premises of any state-run newspaper. In my personal experience they never interfered in the day to day administration and just sent me a report at the end of the year which I used to solve any problems in the running of the paper. A group of lawyers from the court of cassation filed a lawsuit before the State Council Monday in protest over the decision. The group is headed by attorney Essam El-Eslamboli who told Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper that the State Council decision was in effect a decision to silence all opposition in the non-governmental press in Egypt. Additionally, El-Eslamboli felt that the decision was illegal as it violates press freedom and that although this law has been around for over a decade; the decision to enforce it now was suspicious. "The legal opinion is that it violates the freedom of the press, he said, "why is legislation that has not been implemented in 12 years since the issuance of law 96 in 1996 being enacted now in particular and against the backdrop of [recent] attempts to silence the press and cut off its tongue? This especially after the success of independent newspapers in raising the ceiling of criticism? El-Eslamboli also believed that the decision was made to protect the state-run press which has begun to lose its influence and credibility in the streets.
