CAIRO: An administrative court ruling earlier this week invalidated the results of the Journalists' Syndicate's elections of 2007. Fayez Zayed, chief editor of Akhbar El-Parlaman (Parliament News) magazine, and Khalil Fathi, deputy editor of Al-Watan Al-Arabi newspaper, had raised the case when they were disqualified from participating in the elections by the committee overseeing the election process. The court ruling supported the two editors' claim that the committee's decision was unjustified. "The committee did not allow me to participate in the elections due to personal problems (I had) with some of the syndicate's board members, Zayed told Daily News Egypt. Zayed ran for position of chairman of the Journalists' Syndicate in 2003 and 2005, but his bid for the 2007 elections against the current head Makram Mohamed Ahmed was turned down. However, Gamal Fahmy, current head of the syndicate's foreign affairs committee, said that both candidates were disqualified in 2007 because they failed to meet all the candidacy criteria. "This [court] decision is not against the syndicate but against the elections committee, he said. However, Fahmy highlighted the importance of respecting the court's decision and implementing its verdict. Ahmed, the syndicate's current head, told Daily News Egypt that the syndicate's lawyer Farid Abu Zeid is likely to have appealed the court's decision already. He highlighted the goals he achieved during his tenure and that were promised in his electoral campaign such as raising journalists' salaries. With the Journalists' Syndicate elections scheduled to take place next month, it is still unclear who will run in the race pending a court's decision on whether the 2007 elections would be repeated. Should he run in the coming elections, Zayed said he faces big challenges in standing against the "regime and earning journalists' votes against Ahmed who has been heading the syndicate for two years. Zayed said he plans to push for freedom of speech and better accommodating journalists and their families, among other important issues. On the other hand, Ahmed said that while journalism is progressing in Egypt, the syndicate still needs to push for enforcing media ethics in order to improve journalists' image, while at the same time giving them the space to practice their profession with no restrictions.
