Al-Ahram Weekly Issue No. 245 2 - 8 November 1995
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

Firebrand tamed

Banned repeatedly and then shut down by President Sadat for fiercely opposing his policies, Al-Ahali has toned down its criticism of the government. Critics say it lost a large section of its readership as a result

The weekly Al-Ahali, mouthpiece of Tagammu, is not the same newspaper which first appeared in February 1978. The red banner headlines on its front page have become more subdued over the past few years, and the newspaper's layout was changed, putting a greater emphasis on news rather than party positions.

At is birth, the political climate was hostile to the left. President Anwar El-Sadat held them responsible for the January 1977 food riots, and the confrontation between leftists and the government assumed even larger proportions when Sadat visited Jerusalem at the end of the same year, triggering an opposition outcry.

Nearly four months after Al-Ahali first came out, two successive issues were confiscated. On1 June 1978, Sadat passed a new law on "protecting the domestic front and social peace", imposing restrictions on the activities of opposition parties. Tagammu reacted by suspending the publication of Al-Ahali.

But under pressure from Tagammu members, the newspaper resumed publication on 12 July 1978. Only 11 issues were published before Sadat shut it down on 25 October. Out of these 11 issues, seven were confiscated. The newspaper was not allowed to re-appear until May 1982, seven months after Sadat's assassination.

Hussein Abdel-Razek, a member of the newspaper's first editorial board and later its editor-in-chief for six years, said the first eight months of Al-Ahali's history were its "most glorious". During that period, he said, the newspaper's circulation ranged between 80,000 and 120,000, "and it could have been even larger, were it not for our financial problems."

The 1982 appointment of Abdel-Razek, a communist, as the newspaper's editor, triggered controversy inside the party. Several members argued the appointment would confirm the government's allegations that Tagammu was a front for communists.

Abdel-Razek, described as hawkish, used almost every issue of Al-Ahali to highlight opposition to the government within the country, giving prominence to anti-government protests, particularly those by workers and peasants.

Abdel-Razek's critics accuse him of giving precedence to his ideological commitments over nationalist sentiment. One striking example was a series of articles he published following a visit to Afghanistan, praising the then-current Soviet occupation of that Muslim country. Like all leading Tagammu figures, Abdel-Razek offered to resign more than once when his editorial policy faced opposition. His resignation was finally accepted in May 1988.

The working relationship between the newspaper's editor-in-chief and the party's leadership has been marked by tension since Al-Ahali's earliest days, over the issue of whether the newspaper should be an accurate reflection of party policy. The newspaper's staff often complained of interference from the party leadership, and in official party meetings, members would complain that certain articles should not have been published because they did not represent the party's viewpoint.

Abdel-Razek's removal appeared to be an attempt by Tagammu to project a new image. The newspaper became less sensational and its language more subdued under his successors, the late Philip Gallab and then Mahmoud El-Maraghi.

By then, the newspaper's circulation had dropped to 15,000 at a time when other opposition newspapers such as Al-Wafd and Al-Shaab were gaining a wider readership. Many of Al-Ahali's prominent writers stopped contributing, compounding the newspaper's apparently insoluble problem of how to win over professional journalists in return for meager salaries.

The shrinking popularity of Tagammu itself also contributed to the decline of the newspaper - many of its old-time readers say they have stopped buying it.

Following several changes, Abdel-Al El-Baqouri was appointed editor-in-chief a little over a year ago. Described as an "outsider" by a leading party member, who asked that his name be withheld, El-Baqouri had spent 12 years working in the Arab gulf, during which time he was not involved in party politics.

For his part, El-Baqouri said that the elections will be the main focus of the newspaper until 29 November - election day. The idea of publishing the newspaper on a twice-weekly basis during this period is under discussion, but whether the necessary money could be raised was open to question, he said.

Al-Ahali's campaign will focus on supporting the party's candidates, criticising the ruling NDP, opposing the radical Islamist groups and their sympathisers and exposing corruption, El-Baqouri said.

"We are against any faction which supports terrorism, including those factions inside the ruling NDP," he asserted.

Hassan Ragab, a professor of journalism at the American University in Cairo, said Al-Ahali was in decline because Tagammu had turned into a "tame opposition".

"Al-Ahali has become a weak party newspaper that has no specific trend to advocate," he said. "Even its famous opinion page has now been canceled, which shows that the party and the newspaper have very little to say against the government."

Ragab pointed to El-Baqouri's appointment as chief editor as evidence of the party leadership's attempt to tighten control over the paper. "In the past, there were journalists to lead Al-Ahali. Now, politicians are in control. This has led to the deterioration in the newspaper's quality."

ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription

WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg

Al-Ahram Organisation