Abdullah Hamed-Cairo
On the ground floor of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, a few journalists laid down a simple carpet, in a temporary and limited sit-in in the middle of last week, in solidarity with colleagues in conjunction with the hearing to renew their detention.
The ploy of the carpet was what the discussion ended up in the union building as a solution to free the union from the seats, otherwise the alternative is to stand or sit directly on the ground, which means acquiescence to "deliberate insult" by the union board, or fatigue and then leave quickly and "achieve the objectives Evacuate the building from the seats. "
The Council of the Journalists Syndicate, headed by its government president Diaa Rashwan, vacated the building from the seats, and was reportedly among the journalists that the evacuation is intended by high security orders, to prevent the union from becoming the focus of meetings for journalists and activists, as it was during periods of a headache for the regime.
Scaffolding tool successive councils to try to occupy the union building to prevent the meeting of journalists (Al Jazeera) |
Circumvent repression
The plan succeeded, and the journalists sat in a trance expressed by one sitting on the ground calling on his colleagues to join the sit-in, as "a small victory amid successive defeats."
Other journalists joined the group, some protesting against the decision to evacuate the building, and some in solidarity with the detained journalists.
The cups of tea and coffee took place in a session reminiscent of the countryside, but echoed among journalists, and were circulated on Facebook pages, more bitter ridicule than the freedom to sit in the "Castle of Freedoms," a description that journalists prefer to call their union.
“We feel helpless and helpless,” said Kareem, a pseudonym for a journalist who does not find a job and has to vent his opinion against the restriction of freedoms on Facebook pages, in closed groups to journalists after the union "closed its doors to its members."
A member of the Journalists' Syndicate has reached out to the protesters on the carpet.
The member of the Council - the government - discharged his responsibility and the captain of what is happening, stressing that it is up to the Secretary-General, who oversees the building staff.
The position of Secretary General is in the hands of a member close to the regime, and was under the former Council of the Secretary General of the Council Hatem Zakaria, and after falling in the recent elections, the group controlling the Council - most of them close to the regime - to be in the hands of member Mohammed Shabana, member of the Front Correction Which won the last election after a conflict with the union's independence front.
Demonstrations by journalists on the union's ladder have receded because of security instructions for the council, Al Jazeera |
Guild without meetings
Interestingly, the only good place for the journalists' meeting is the cafeteria, but it has cameras in the corners that journalists say convey the image directly to a security apparatus.
The halls for meetings are closed and there are rarely meetings in which the profession or freedoms are held. The union council rejects requests from local human rights and civil organizations to hold meetings, according to council sources.
Journalists have been trying to hold meetings to discuss the issues of professional freedoms in the union building in the days of former President Yahya Qalash - non-government - also witnessed in this period protests and sit-ins continued to haunt the security services, to the extent of the closure of Abdel Khaleq Tharwat Street, where the union is sometimes full, when journalists announced About organizing certain events.
The last union elections in March saw violent clashes between journalists and supporters of the current president over what they saw as a contradiction between his position as head of the Information Service and his hopeful position - at the time of the election - as the president of the press.
One month passes only when new journalists join the list of detained journalists or the imprisonment of journalists is renewed, prompting international organizations and the US State Department to denounce the regime's practices against press freedom.
In parallel, the situation of the Egyptian press deteriorates not only on the level of freedoms, but also on the level of availability of jobs, as a result of the blocking of hundreds of press sites, the closure of newspapers and the state monopoly of most of the media, and the restriction of the work of independent reporters.