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War of words

ACCUSATIONS were flying back and forth between representatives of the media and the private sector at a recent conference titled "Media and the Private Sector: Partnership or Confrontation?" The conference was organised by the Canada-Egypt Business Council, and brought together leading names from the worlds of business on the one hand and print and television media on the other, reports Niveen Wahish. One of the hot questions discussed during the event concerned the reasons why the media so often portrays businessmen as criminals. The answer, according to businessman Mohamed Nosseir, relates to a culture inherited from the 1960s era of socialism, which depicted private entrepreneurship as an evil undertaking. Magdi El-Gallad, editor-in-chief of the privately owned daily Al-Masry Al-Yom meanwhile attributed the predicament to a number of factors, foremost among which is the lack of information and the synonymy of power with wealth as is the case nowadays. He lamented the appointment of businessmen to ministerial positions in an environment which lacks the transparency and regulation to uncover corruption. El-Gallad also called for the private sector to play a more organised social role -- and not to depend on mere individual efforts, as is the case currently. Nonetheless, he did not deny that some papers do go to extremes and publish false information, adding that this issue could be resolved by increasing financial penalties on offending publishing houses. And while some called for new regulations, El-Gallad said, "we do not need new laws, rather we need to activate existing laws." Meanwhile, conference attendees also discussed to what extent private ownership affects outlet content.

Among the guests at the conference were owner of Al-Mehwar channel businessman Hassan Rateb, as well as Salah Diab, chairman of PICO and co-owner of Al-Masry Al-Yom. The panel also featured Naguib Sawiris, co-owner of Al-Masry Al-Yom and owner of OTV. All three said objectivity is what they seek to offer in their coverage. However, Rateb stated clearly that he would not allow his channel to become a platform for ideas that do not form part of the ideology on which the channel was based.

Angry lawyers

HUNDREDS of lawyers staged a sit-in at the headquarters of the Bar Association on Sunday to protest against delaying elections at their syndicate, reports Mona El-Nahhas.

Last week, the Administrative Court ordered a stoppage to the Bar's elections which were scheduled for 14 November. In its ruling, the court said that Law 100/1993 was not applied while taking the necessary electoral procedures.

Lawyers vowed to continue their strike until, they said, they regain full control of their syndicate.

The Bar Association is currently run by a judicial committee headed by the chief justice of the Appeals Court. The committee began taking responsibility for the administrative affairs of the Bar in the wake of a court ruling passed earlier this year dissolving the Islamist-controlled syndicate council.

The judicial committee will continue administering the Bar Association until the head of the Cairo Southern Court judge Farouk Sultan fixes a new date for elections.

Sultan decided yesterday to start procedures necessary to hold elections at the Bar Association. Accordingly, he asked the judicial committee in charge of running the syndicate to send him voter lists.

Sameh Ashour, former syndicate chairman who was planning to run for the chairmanship seat, stressed during a press conference which he organised following the sit-in, that lawyers would never accept placing their syndicate under judicial sequestration.

Gas problems

MAJOR surgical operations are being reduced in the nation's hospitals after the Minister of Health and Population Hatem El-Gabali ordered anaesthetists not to use nitrous oxide, Reem Leila reports. The partial ban, which went into effect on 31 October, came after up to fourpatients died in three of Cairo's private hospitals during operations in which they inhaled the gas. As a result, hospitals decided to postpone major operations lasting longer than two hours and instructed anaesthetists to resort to local anaesthesia instead.

Head of the Doctors Syndicate Hamdi El-Sayed said the patients had died from "a faulty nitrous oxide gas manufactured by a local company" and not from surgical error or negligence, as some newspapers claimed last week. Health officials, according to El-Sayed, should find out quickly why the gas has become harmful and even fatal. The reason may be a specific problem in its production, El-Sayed said. "It would be a calamity if the gas used in these particular operations was faulty or had exceeded its expiry date. But we have to say that the surgeons and anaesthetists did their job perfectly and are not to be blamed for the patients' deaths," El-Sayed said.

Minister El-Gabali, who has ordered the closure of operating theatres in major hospitals in Cairo, imposed the ban as a precautionary measure until investigations were complete.

Adel Zaki, a cardiologist, explained that nitrous, known as laughing gas, is a drug whose use began in the 1840s. "Deaths involving nitrous oxide are very rare," Zaki said, adding that nitrous oxide is a gas of low anaesthetic potency because it is incapable of inducing deep levels of anaesthesia if adequate oxygen concentration is maintained. However, he said that many doctors do not use nitrous oxide in their work. "People who breathe nitrous oxide for more than a few minutes at a time may experience nausea, especially if they have just eaten. They may also feel hung over for some time after."

Pot of black gold

A NEW oil discovery on the West Kalabsha concession of the Western Desert was announced by Apache Corporation on 29 October. This recently tested well lies 50 miles east of the Libyan border, and is Egypt's westernmost discovery in the Western Desert. Drilled to a total depth of 14,600 feet, the well yields 4,746 barrels of oil and 4.4 million cubic feet of gas each day.

The new well is located in the Faghur Basin, eight miles northwest of another Apache well discovered in 2006. According to G. Steven Farris, Apache's president and chief executive officer, the discovery represents the westernmost oil well ever discovered in Egypt. "It confirms our exploration model for this area of the Faghur Basin, coming on the heels of the successful completion of the Heqet-2 well, which tested approximately 3,000 barrels per day," he said.

Apache operates the West Kalabsha concession and has a 100 per cent contractor interest. The company managed to explore and operate a number of wells in concessions along the Faghur Basin which confirms the view that a large portion of the basin is oil-bearing.

The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum described the new discovery as a breakthrough as it will further enhance production from the Western Desert. "Production from the newly discovered wells in the Western Desert concessions has increased by 45.5 per cent since 2000. Responsible for 35 per cent of the country's total production of crude oil and condensates, the Western Desert contributes some 240,000 barrels per day (bpd), compared to almost 165,000 bpd in 2000," the ministry said.

UCMAS under fire

THE NEWLY formed Giza Economy Court will look into its first case later this month, reports Nesmahar Sayed. The case involves alleged violations of the trade law, in particular transferring technology by UCMAS (Universal Concept of Mental Arithmetic System), the renowned international organisation that helps enhance the IQ of children. The suit was filed by Mahmoud El-Asqalani, the spokesman of Citizens Against Soaring Prices, a protest movement, and Hassan Heikal, a former employee of UCMAS. El-Asqalani is accusing UCMAS of publishing what he says are erroneous advertisements in the media.

Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly by phone from the UAE, Magdi Abdel-Hafez, UCMAS manager, said he had not been questioned until now and attributed the reasons behind the case as "personal".

"Hassan Heikal, [former consultant of the company and the employee who filed the lawsuit], issued this false information about us," Abdel-Hafez said.

UCMAS, a Malaysian programme, was the first company to work in child intelligence. It arrived in Egypt four years ago during which it helped Egyptian students win international competitions abroad, according to Ahmed Abdel-Hafiz, the company's executive manager. "This opened the way for others in Egypt to promote other programmes that seek the same goals," Abdel-Hafiz said.

But illegal competition, according to Abdel-Hafez, forced Heikal and Asqalani to take the case to court. "With all the transparency and correct legal situation, we trust the Egyptian courts," Abdel-Hafez said.

The Economy Court opened last month according to Law 120/2008. It has 1,500 employees in Egypt working in several branches.