CAIRO: In an effort to improve the material status of journalists and achieve a higher degree of press freedoms, the Journalists' Syndicate freedoms committee released a list of nine demands this week, including salary increases and the cancellation of prison terms for publishing offenses. The committee called on members of the syndicate's General Assembly to adopt these demands and announce them on April 6, dubbed the "Day of Popular Anger. The 54 signatories of the list, which include editors in chief of independent and party press, members of the Syndicate Council and members of the General Assembly, also called for a sit-in beginning at 2 pm on the same day, to be followed by a series of discussions and symposiums to address the means of achieving these demands. The first demand on the list is an increase in journalists' salaries and an expedient adoption of a proposal presented by the Journalists' Syndicate to the Higher Press Council to allow salaries to account for inflation. Yet the list included more controversial demands, including the cancellation of prison terms for press crimes, a call for a "truly national press, which has been hindered by Policy Committee control over state newspapers. They also called for the reinstatement of newspapers that have been shut-down, including Al-Shaab, Afaq Arabeya, and Sawt Al-Arab, and the release of all those arrested for expressing their opinions, including journalist and activist Magdy Ahmed Hussein, who was charged with illegal entry into the Gaza Strip and handed a two-year prison sentence by a military tribunal. This call for action is the second sign of discontent by journalists. Earlier this month, the "Journalists for Al-Ahram group was formed to protests a board decision prohibiting journalists at the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper from working for any other media organization. The group had claimed that journalists were forced to work for other media organizations because Al-Ahram's revenues were not being evenly distributed, with journalists receiving the lowest pay.
