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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 April 2000 Issue No. 478 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 April 2000 Issue No. 478
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Heritage Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters
Pressing issues
By Shaden ShehabThe first of two recent meetings held by the Arab Journalists' Federation (AJF) was of its secretariat, chaired by Ibrahim Nafie. The two-day meeting started on 12 April and addressed pressing Arab political issues and journalists' professional concerns. It was attended by Salaheddin Hafez, the Federation's secretary-general, Saber Falhout and Melhem Karam, deputy chairmen, and nine other members. An Egyptian exhibition of 60 cartoons illustrating the steadfastness of the Lebanese resistance movement was inaugurated when the meeting began.
In his opening speech, Nafie said: "Collective action is better than individual action, collective responsibility is more democratic, sharing an opinion is better than keeping it to ourselves. These are the principles that have governed our work in the past few years at the Arab Journalists' Federation, which is admired, and may be even envied, by many." Nevertheless, he said that "the achievements and behaviour [of the AJF secretariat] will be assessed by the ninth general congress next October in Jordan," since "now we are in the last months of our leadership of the federation." The general congress, which is held every four years, elects the secretariat and the chairman.
At the political and pan-Arab level, the general secretariat of the AJF expressed solidarity with Lebanon against Israeli aggression, praising the role of the national resistance movement, and also with Syria and Palestine. It supported their stance against the Israeli manoeuvres, orchestrated by Prime Minister Ehud Barak, on the grounds that a comprehensive and just peace is the only solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. The secretariat also affirmed its position on the necessity of rejecting normalisation of relations with Israel until a comprehensive and just peace was achieved.
Concerning professional questions, the secretariat viewed sentences of imprisonment for publishing offences in various Arab countries as a dangerous threat, specifically to the freedom of the press and generally to democratic development. It urged the Arab heads of state to use their constitutional powers to grant amnesty to imprisoned journalists. It also underlined the necessity of amending all Arab legislation to strike off any stiff penalties for publishing offences.
The secretariat praised the efforts made in the past six months in the professional and union levels to upgrade journalists' professional standards by organising workshops, seminars and training courses.
The secretariat concluded its meeting by agreeing to hold the ninth general congress next October in Jordan, and declared its full appreciation of the great efforts made by Nafie to promote the status of the Arab Journalists' Federation.
Following the secretariat meeting, the first session of the Federation's freedoms committee was held. It began on 15 April, lasting for two days, and was chaired by Sami El-Menayessi.
This meeting was also opened by Ibrahim Nafie, who said: "The Arab world is witnessing today what can be considered a real crisis of press freedom, felt in the general climate and in the stiffening of penalties such as imprisonment for publication offences. It is a worrying phenomenon that we see in more than one Arab country. It is felt that there is a tendency to toughen penalties, which is contrary to the democratic development witnessed by the world."
Nafie said that a unified Arab press law has been drafted by the secretariat, taking much time and effort. He added that the draft will be submitted to the general congress in October and, if approved, it will be submitted to Arab governments and parliaments. "This is only one step along a difficult, tiring, and long path, that requires from all of us unity, cooperation and great effort," Nafie contended.
The committee decided to establish a centre, under the supervision of Secretary-General Salaheddin Hafez, for monitoring infringements of press freedoms in Arab countries. The centre will establish a data base on the status of press freedom in the Arab world and will also log journalists' complaints. The committee decided to provide all types of legal and financial support to victims of infringements throughout the Arab world.
The committee's meeting was attended by representatives of various syndicates and journalistic associations as well as by intellectuals. It discussed the appeal submitted by the families and colleagues of three imprisoned journalists who work for Al-Shaab, mouthpiece of Egypt's Islamist-oriented Labour Party. The three were convicted of libelling Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Youssef Wali.
The prosecutor-general was urged in the appeal to use his legal powers to order a stay of execution for the three journalists. It also entreated President Hosni Mubarak to intervene and order the cancellation of the freedom-restricting penalties for publishing offences. The written appeal also demanded that the good treatment of the imprisoned journalists be continued.
