CAIRO -

The National Press Authority in Egypt decided to stop the publication of "Al Kawakeb" magazine, the most famous and oldest local art magazine, whose first issue was published 90 years ago, in the context of an official trend towards "digitizing" newspapers and integrating major national institutions.

The announcement of the death certificate of “Al-Kawakib” came during a meeting held by the official body responsible for regulating press affairs in Egypt yesterday, Thursday, which ended with merging the two magazines “Al-Kawakib” (dating back to 1932) and “Your Doctor” (a medical journal whose first issue was published in 1969) in Hawa magazine (specializing in Women’s Affairs dates back to 1954), and all of them are issued by the Dar Al-Hilal Foundation, with the creation of a website for each issue, provided that this is done as of the first issue of next June.

The authority explained, in a statement, that the employees of the aforementioned issuances will retain all their jobs and their financial rights, including wages and other financial benefits, and also agreed to start procedures for investing a number of untapped assets in the Al-Ahram, Dar Al-Tahrir and Rose Al-Youssef (official) institutions.

The decision comes about a year after the authority announced, in a precedent, the first of its kind in the history of the Egyptian press, the conversion of evening publications of national press institutions to the electronic version, and the abolition of their paper editions, which date back to the middle of the last century.

The most prominent of these publications that stopped printing are “Al-Ahram Evening Newspaper” affiliated with Al-Ahram Foundation, “Evening News” issued by Akhbar Al-Youm Foundation, and “Al-Massa” which is the first evening newspaper in Egypt and was a voice for the revolution of July 23, 1952 (it ended the monarchy and announced Al-Jumhuriya), which is published by Dar Al-Tahrir for printing and publishing.

In contrast to the official press institutions, a group of private newspapers and websites - widely spread - have tended in recent years towards "digitization" or complete closure, for reasons most notably the absence of media freedoms and security restrictions, according to previous statements reported by Al Jazeera Net about journalists and media specialists.

The oldest and most famous

Al-Kawakib magazine is published by the Dar Al-Hilal Foundation, its first issue was issued on March 28, 1932, as a weekly magazine dealing with artistic and cinematic topics, and it represents a huge archive of Egyptian artistic, cinematic and theatrical history that is close to a century.

It was published by the Lebanese journalist Georgy Zeidan, founder of Dar Al-Hilal, and its editor-in-chief was passed by famous media figures in Egypt, including Mahmoud Saad, Hassan Shah, Raji Enayat and Muhammad Ragaa Al-Naqash.

At the beginning of the era of talking cinema in the thirties of the last century, the magazine carried on its shoulders introducing readers to the first generation of stars of the seventh art, including Najib Al-Rihani, Siraj Mounir, Abdel Salam Al-Nabulsi, Stephan Rosti, Youssef Wehbe, Amina Rizk and others.

The first issue of it was issued with 34 pages, and placed on its cover a picture of the artist Nadera, the heroine of the movie "Song of the Heart", which is classified as the first Arab speaking film, in which she also conducted a dialogue with comedian Ali Al-Kassar, and his experience in how to make the audience laugh on stage, in addition to publishing a report on the scenes And the anecdotes of the movie "Awlad Al-Zawat" starring Youssef Wehbe, Siraj Mounir and Amina Rizk.

In its journalistic history, the magazine was concerned with many technical issues related to freedom of creativity, translating foreign films into Arabic, and supporting cinema, theater and others. It was not closed to the local artistic issue, but its follow-up extended since its first editions to Hollywood and foreign cinema in general.

On the most important issues raised by the magazine in the year of its first publication, the struggle of the actor, author, director and one of the pioneers of Egyptian theater Zaki Tulaimat to establish an acting institute;

To enroll girls to study with him, the magazine celebrated at that time - according to the website of Dar Al-Hilal - the artist Zuzu Hamdi Al-Hakim because she was the first to graduate from the institute, and her pictures topped its 19th edition of the same year.

sadness and lament

The comments of the pioneers of the communication sites came between a supporter of the decisions of the National Press Authority, as it came in the context of stopping the bleeding of the decline and losses of official press releases, and another who saw it as a shock to the long history of a prestigious artistic magazine.

The Dar Al-Hilal Foundation is one of the oldest Egyptian cultural and press institutions. The first issue of it was published in 1892. Throughout its history, many prestigious magazines were published by it, some of which are still in existence until now.

There is no accurate inventory of the employees of Dar Al-Hilal or the national institutions in general, which are 8 institutions that present about 55 different publications, but some media reports estimate the number of employees in these institutions at about 30,000, between journalists and administrators.

These national institutions, with total debts ranging between 14 and 25 billion pounds, are estimates that led to controversy under the parliament last year, about the actual number of debts, which accumulated in conjunction with the decline in their sales.