Press Syndicate to decide on Sunday date of receiving nominations for mid-term election

Syndicate signed protocol with ministry of military production on Saturday to establish Journalists' Hospital

Egypt's Press Syndicate will decide on Sunday the date of opening nominations for the upcoming elections, said the Head of the Syndicate Abdel Mohsen Salama in a press statement on Friday.
The meeting is expected to determine whether the nominations would begin by the end of the current week or by the beginning of the next one, as the syndicate will run a mid-term election to select a new president and six members of the council in March.
Salama said that he did not yet determine his stance towards running the election, but his stance will be announced one day before the beginning of the nomination.
Meanwhile, the Head of the State Information Service (SIS), Diaa Rashwan announced his intention to run for the seat of the Head of the Press Syndicate. His intention stirred controversy over the eligibility of a high government official to run for the post of heading the syndicate.
A number of articles of the syndicate's law stipulate that the head should be registered in the ‘employed' list of the Syndicate for at least 10 years, and the journalist would lose this if he is appointed to a high government position.
Rashwan, who previously was the president of the syndicate, is heading one of the top state media entities in the country. The prominent journalist justified his stance, referring that several state officials were allowed to run for the position in press entities.
Salama, who is also managing editor of state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper, was elected in 2017 as the new head of the Press Syndicate following former head Yehia Qallash.
In a similar context, Salama noted that Syndicate will sign on Sunday a protocol with the ministry of military production to establish a journalists hospital in Sixth of October City, local media reported.
He said that this will be an achievement equivalent to the building of the current union building, highlighting that the hospital will be providing medical treatment for all specialities, and services equivalent to private hospitals.
This comes after the Syndicate received in December a letter from Military Production Company for Projects and Engineering Consultations that it had completed the study of the establishment of the hospital. The board of directors of New Urban Communities Authority agreed in June 2017 to allocate a land of 2,500 metres to construct the journalists' hospital in the Sixth of October City.
Similarly, last week, an office for Egypt's real estate was launched inside the Syndicate, after an agreement with the ministry of justice. Salama commented on the establishment of the office saying that it is an addition to many other achievements.
He added that there are EGP 20m allocated to address the problem of some newspapers, and establishing a training centre inside the Syndicate to train journalists on developing their journalistic work.