CAIRO: The General Committee at the Shoura Council (Upper House of parliament) reshuffled during a meeting Tuesday a number of editors-in-chief of state-run newspapers and magazines. “This is the time for annual changes … It has nothing to do with any [other factors],” said Galal Doweidar, secretary general of the Higher Press Council. “There is nothing abnormal about the timing of the reshuffle … the press law states that anyone above [the age of] 65 can't stay in [this] position. So it is just an implementation of the law,” Doweidar told Daily News Egypt. Editor-in-Chief of daily Al-Akhbar newspaper Mohamed Barakat was appointed as the board chairman of Akhbar Al-Youm institution, replacing Mohamed Mahdy Fadly. Yasser Rizk, editor-in-chief of Al-Eza'a Wal Television weekly magazine, was appointed as the new chief editor of Al-Akhbar. The general committee assigned Mohamed Abdel-Salam the post of the editor-in-chief of El-Seyasa El-Dawliya, a quarterly magazine specialized in politics published by Al-Ahram institution, succeeding Osama El-Ghazaly Harb. Moustafa Abdullah was appointed as the chief editor of the literary Akhbar Al-Adab weekly newspaper, published by Akhbar Al-Youm, replacing Gamal El-Gheitany. When contacted by Daily News Egypt, El-Gheitany declined to comment on the reshuffle. Hisham Murad was announced as the new editor of the weekly French-language Al-Ahram Hebdo newspaper, succeeding Mohamed Salmawy who retired a year ago. According to Doweidar, such changes should have taken place last year, but were postponed because of the parliamentary elections and due to the fact that “no one was free.” Meanwhile, the committee renewed for one year the tenure of Al-Ahram board chairman Abdel-Moneim Saeid as well as the editors-in-chief of the following Al-Ahram publications: Nos El-Donia weekly magazine, Al-Ahram Al-Riyadi weekly magazine specialized in sports, Al-Ahram Al-Araby weekly magazine and Al-Shabab youth monthly magazine. The Shoura Council supervises the national and state-owned press. The Higher Press Council is affiliated to the Shoura Council. Both entities are led by Shoura Council Speaker Safwat El-Sherif, who is also the Secretary General of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).
