The editor of an Egyptian semi-official magazine Wednesday vowed not to comply with a decision by the Egyptian Press Syndicate to suspend a journalist at his magazine for communicating with Israel. “I cannot prevent any journalist from writing because this punishment would be tantamount to jailing for any journalist,” said Magdi el-Daqaq, the Editor-in-Chief of the weekly magazine October. Egypt's Press Syndicate on Tuesday decided to suspend Hussein Seragfrom work for three months for dealing with Israel. At a heated disciplinary meeting, board members of the independent union said by visiting Israel and meeting with Israelis Serage, the deputy chief editor of October had violated the codes of the union and that was why he deserved to be suspended from work. “These journalists should have been given harsher punishments,” said Gamal Abdel Reheem, a Press Syndicate board member. “They've violated the rules of the General Assembly of the syndicate and this isn't an easy matter,” he told The Gazette in an interview. The Press Syndicate decided years ago to bar the normalisation of relations with Israel, a country that is still being viewed as an enemy to many in this country even after it signed a peace treaty ��" the first with an Arab country ��" with Egypt almost 30 years ago. Serag was stunned by the decision and said he would sue the union for preventing Egyptian journalists from communicating with Israeli people. “Israeli journalists can come here and meet with Egyptian officials,” he said. “Why shouldn't Egypt's journalists do the same? The Syndicate must reconsider its decisions,” he told this newspaper in an interview. Members of the union's board also warned Hala Moustafa, the editor of the monthly magazine Democracy, for meeting with the Israeli Ambassador in Cairo in her office months ago. Moustafa's meeting with the Israeli diplomat made local headlines and was treated as a disgracing affair to her.
