CAIRO: In spite of his concerns of possible censorship, journalist Mohamed Al-Baz said the independent press will not be monitored by the Central Audit Bureau (CAB) unless they commit financial violations. Al-Baz told Daily News Egypt that the State Council's new decree issued last week giving CAB the authority to monitor and audit the financial, administrative and legal aspects of any independent or privately-owned media in Egypt should not be viewed as a form of censorship. The decision, he says, is mainly to monitor these foreign funds as well as funding to newspapers published by illegal political groups like the Muslim Brotherhood. "The independent press that has committed no financial violations and are objectively reporting the truth should have nothing to fear, said Al-Baz, who writes for Al Fajr, independent weekly paper. On the other hand, Al-Baz is still concerned that this decision might be the beginning of a censorship targeting the content of the independent press. "We live under a political system that can do anything at any time, but this would be a huge setback to the democratic system the government claims to be following, Al-Baz said. Head of Press Syndicate Makram Mohamed Ahmed wrote in his daily column in state-run Al-Ahram that the decision is only meant to monitor the financial funds of the newspapers but this did not mean that the CAB will treat the independent press the way it deals with government newspapers "where it gives itself the right to monitor all managerial decisions and the decisions of their chairs and chief editors. Ahmed told Daily News Egypt that his reaction to the issue was summed up in the column he published in state-owned Al-Ahram on Sunday. He opposed the idea of government interference in newspapers' legal or financial documents under the name of financial monitoring. In a previous interview with Daily News Egypt, 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. "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. A group of lawyers from the court of cassation filed a lawsuit at 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 independent press. 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.
