CAIRO: The Journalists' Syndicate's Freedoms Committee condemned what it described as the politically-motivated vandalism of Al-Badil newspaper's advertisements on public buses, the committee said in a statement. The Syndicate accused Al-Ahram Advertising Agency of deliberately sabotaging the paper's ads that appear on public buses or covering them with black posters. In the statement, the Syndicate's expressed its concern that this practice could extend to the paper's ads in other venues, including the metro. Khaled Al-Belishy, managing director of Al-Badil newspaper, told Daily News Egypt that they discovered that all of their promotional posters on public buses were "either removed, drawn on or taken down. He accused Al-Ahram Advertising Agency - which prints and distributes Al-Badil's advertisements - of intentionally vandalizing the ads. "A while ago we received a phone call from Al-Ahram Advertising Agency telling us that a security organization, which the agency refused to name, is asking us to change the logos we use for our advertising posters because they stir public opinion, Al-Belishy said. Yet, according to Al-Belishy, the agency didn't say it was behind what happened to the paper's posters. The advertising posters, Al-Belishy explained, feature images of the Egyptians who are currently suffering from poverty, lack of resources, unemployment and rising prices of essential commodities. The posters feature an Arab proverb that describes their suffering. However, he said that the newspaper does not intend to change those posters. The paper, he added, didn't take any action against the agency but only filed a complaint to the Journalists' Syndicate. "Mohamed Abdel Quddous, president of the Journalists' Syndicate's Freedoms Committee is the one who sent the press release on the issue, Al-Belishy noted. Neither Al-Ahram Advertising Agency nor Abdel Qudous were available for comment.
