CAIRO - Former chief of UN nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei abandoned an idea to visit Egypt's Press Syndicate after the head of the independent union asked him to get a permit before such a drop-in, in which he was supposed to show his support to a group of journalists holding a strike inside. ElBaradei, a 2005 Nobel peace prize laureate, said he was "sorry for not being helped to make such a visit". Makram Mohamed Ahmed, the head of the Press Syndicate, had asked ElBaradei, who returned to Egypt last February to join opposition, to submit an official request to the union's board to visit it. "I have sent a letter to ElBaradei asking him to follow the legal way if he wanted to visit the syndicate. This is a principle," Ahmed said. However, he added that his request could be then studied. ElBaradei was supposed to meet journalists from Al-Dostour independent newspaper who are on a strike inside the syndicate after their Editor-in-Chief Ibrahim Eissa was dismissed. "He can show his solidarity with them outside the syndicate, which should not be a scene for political battles," Ahmed said. ‘The Independent Campaign to Support ElBaradei' slammed Makram's position as an insult for Egyptian journalists. "It seems Makram wants to turn the Press Syndicate into a prison, for which its visitors should get permits," the group said in a statement yesterday. It added that this refusal could not be the stance of all Egyptian journalists. One of Al-Dostour journalists, meanwhile, stressed that the rejection of Baradei's visit was due to security pressures. "This is a scandal," the journalist said. Eissa, editor-in-chief of Al-Dostour and known for his satirical columns against the Government, said he was not given the exact reasons for the sacking. But he said his dismissal came "hours after the publishers told me they didn't want me to run an article written by ElBaradei". The paper was recently bought by business tycoon Sayyed Badawi, who also heads the liberal Al-Wafd Party, and businessman Reda Edwar.
