CAIRO – The Egyptian Journalists Syndicate's Istiqlal Movement decided the results of the midterm elections in its favor after an electoral battle over which expectations conflicted, and independents won the president's seat along with 4 out of 6 seats contested.

The judicial committee supervising the elections announced on Friday that journalist Khaled Elbalshy won the position of head of the Journalists Syndicate, who is affiliated with the opposition movement, and was in competition with the editor-in-chief of the state-owned daily Al-Akhbar, Khaled Miri.

Khaled Elbalshy is the editor-in-chief of the Darb website, which is affiliated with the opposition-affiliated Popular Socialist Alliance Party. According to the committee, the total votes obtained reached 2450,2211 votes, compared to <>,<> votes in favor of Khaled Miri.

"Darb" is an opposition press website that was blocked by the authority several weeks after its launch, and observers believe that this is the first time in the history of the syndicate that the head of the Journalists Syndicate has a blocked position.

After the results were announced, Merry congratulated his rival Al-Balshy on winning the position of president, through his personal account on Facebook, expressing his wishes for success to the press community.

Al-Balshi's progress was supported by the victory of 4 of his companions in the membership of the syndicate council: Mahmoud Kamel with 2299,2094 votes, Hisham Younis with 2074,2015 votes, Gamal Abdel Rahim with 25,<> votes, and Mohamed El Garhy with <> votes. All of them are affiliated with the "January <> Revolution" movement.

Eleven candidates ran for the post of president, while 11 candidates competed for 40 seats to fill half of the council's membership.

Journalist #خالد_البلشي celebrates among his supporters his victory in the seat of the head of the Journalists Syndicate pic.twitter.com/HNFrFkkMsH

— Al Jazeera Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) March 17, 2023

Journalism is not a crime

In November 2017, Elbalshy won the Nelson Mandela International Award for Human Rights Defenders among 300 nominees worldwide for his role in defending press and press freedom in Egypt.

When he was head of the union's freedoms committee in 2016, Elbalshy launched a campaign called "Journalism is not a crime", calling for the release of imprisoned journalists. In 2022, the prosecution investigated him on charges of spreading false news after reports against him and later released him.

The Egyptian authorities blocked three press websites that he had previously chaired, such as "Al-Badil", "Al-Kateb" and "Al-Bedaya", as well as "Darb", which is affiliated with the Egyptian opposition.

Wide participation in the elections of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate (Al Jazeera)

January 25 Stream

Some candidates of the syndicate's independence movement focus on the so-called "karneh" battle, with their interest in defending freedoms and the independence of the syndicate's work from the government, while candidates affiliated with the government focus on the so-called "pound" battle, in relation to their constant attempts to raise the monetary value of the so-called "technology allowance" paid to journalists monthly.

During their election campaign to win the seat of the president and the council, Elbalshy and a number of his companions pledged to improve the financial conditions of journalists and work to release journalists imprisoned on charges including spreading false news.

A few days before running in the elections, Elbalshy accused satellite channels affiliated with the United Media Services Company (owned by the General Intelligence Service) of avoiding hosting him, according to independent Mada Masr.

A new council without exclusion

Commenting on the results, the winning candidate for membership of the syndicate's council, Mahmoud Kamel, said that they strongly express the will of journalists and that they are able to defend their syndicate and that they have a great awareness of their journalistic requirements, and they have chosen someone to express them.

He stressed in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, that all members of the Council will work to achieve the goals and demands of the press group without excluding anyone, and will focus on the interests of journalists without compliments.

If the result brought new surprises with the victory of the independence candidate, he said that the result was not surprising because they worked hard to achieve their goals and win the position of president and the largest possible number of seats in the council on which the elections were held.

Founded in 1941. #صباح_الخير in front of the headquarters of the #نقابة_الصحفيين, which began construction in 1998 and was completed in 2002 to witness important events in the modern history of #مصر pic.twitter.com/kwzUEfstB4

— Al Jazeera Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) March 18, 2023

Files awaiting the new council

Abdel Moneim al-Hashash, a member of the Journalists Syndicate, expressed hope that the new council under the leadership of Captain Elbalshy would be able to achieve the interests of the press community without any obstacles after the loss of the candidate affiliated with the government.

Regarding the files that must focus on the new Council, Al-Hashash explained in statements to Al Jazeera Net, that many files were far from the table of the last Council, led by the rights of journalists in many closed newspapers, freedom of opinion and the press, and the defense of the rights of journalists in a manner commensurate with the nature of the stage.

He said that the results were already surprising to some because of the great support that the winning syndicate's rival enjoyed in the media and journalist, but the large presence of journalists and the serious participation in order to cast their votes enabled each movement to get a full opportunity.

Violations against journalists

According to the 2022 annual report on media freedom violations in Egypt, issued by the Arab Observatory for Media Freedom (an independent human rights body), the last year saw the release of 19 journalists, while 16 others were arrested. This brought the number of journalists currently imprisoned to 47, with 5 journalists and media workers working abroad on terrorist lists.

For its part, the annual statistical report for 2022 of the Egyptian Observatory for Press and Media (an independent human rights body) documented 238 cases of violations against journalists, media workers or institutions in which they work, an increase of 126% compared to 2021, in which violations were recorded with a total of 105 cases.