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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 May 1999 Issue No. 429 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 May 1999 Issue No. 429
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Books Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters 'Fake' journalist faces more charges
By Shaden ShehabThe Press Syndicate Council will start accepting nominations for the post of chairman and 12 council seats on 12 June. The nomination process for the 28 June elections will continue for five days.
Elections will be conducted according to two laws: the Press Syndicate's Law 76 of 1976 and Law 100 of 1993.
Law 100, which provides "democratic guarantees for trade and professional unions", stipulates that the council of a professional union, without specifying the chairman, is elected for a four-year term. The Press Syndicate law stipulates that the chairman is elected every two years for a maximum of two consecutive terms.
Before the last election in 1995, a number of journalists delayed the elections by filing a lawsuit with an administrative court in order to obtain a ruling stipulating which law should be enforced. The administrative court ruled that Law 100 concerns the council only, while the Press Syndicate law should be followed for the election of the chairman.
As a result, the 1995 elections were confined to the chairman's post. Chairman Makram Mohamed Ahmed told Al-Ahram Weekly on Monday that he was still considering whether to nominate himself. Ahmed has previously served as Syndicate chairman for two terms, from 1989 to 1991 and from 1991 to 1993.
The elections are supervised by a judicial committee and will take place at the temporary headquarters of the Syndicate. A new building for the Syndicate is being built on the former site on Abdel-Khalek Sarwat Street in downtown Cairo.
Meanwhile, Hussein El-Moetini, who set up an independent press union and appointed himself as its chairman, is facing a number of charges.
El-Moetini was arrested on 1 May and remanded in custody for 45 days. He initially faced charges of forgery for claiming in his identity papers that he is a journalist, the chairman of a press union and the chief editor of a newspaper. He was also accused of setting up a professional union without registering it with the Public Notary. El-Moetini had obtained a union licence from the Ministry of Social Affairs but it was recently suspended by the Public Notary.
Last year, Makram Mohamed Ahmed filed a complaint with the prosecutor-general contesting the legality of the new union. A few weeks ago, Ahmed filed another complaint that El-Moetini was circulating a weekly newspaper, Sahebat Al-Galala (Her Majesty), illegally.
More charges were pressed against El-Moetini last week. Alaa Hamed, a writer, accused him of storming an apartment which he owns, taking it over and using it as the union's office. The apartment was impounded by the police when El-Moetini was arrested and restored to its original owner.
Other complaints filed against El-Moetini include issuing a bad cheque, stealing a telephone line from his neighbour and fraud.
El-Moetini's lawyer, Ayman Abul-Ezz, told the Weekly that his client will provide documents proving he is a graduate of the journalism department of the Faculty of Arts, Sohag University, a member of the Press Workers Syndicate -- which is different from the Press Syndicate -- and that the union El-Moetini set up and the newspaper he edits are legal. Abul-Ezz said the apartment used by the union as its headquarters was sold by Hamed to El-Moetini and there was a contract of sale available to prove it.
"If all these charges are true, why was he left all this time?" said Abul-Ezz. El-Moetini set up the union more than a year ago and has already published more than eight issues of his newspaper.
"If El-Moetini had been doing something illegal, he would not have asked the People's Assembly last year to pass a law to regulate his union's activities. Why didn't anyone object at the time?" Abul-Ezz said.
