The filming of the funeral of Egyptian actor Mustafa Darwish, who died on Monday at the age of 43, sparked widespread controversy and calls to ban the filming of funerals and condolences for celebrities.

The reason for the controversy is due to the spread of a photo of two photojournalists laughing while filming the funeral, coinciding with the collapse and sadness of the late artist's brother, which provoked many who expressed their anger at the situation on social media platforms.

A circulating photo from Mustafa Darwish's funeral in which two journalists laugh during filming (Yasmine Abdel Aziz Twitter account)

Investigation into the incident

After the spread of images, the Photojournalists Division in Egypt issued a statement on the situation, which said, "As the Photographers Division of the Journalists Syndicate mourns the death of the late Mustafa Darwish, it would like to emphasize its respect for professional ethics and ethics, and after investigation, we found that these two girls are not members of the Photographers Division of the Journalists Syndicate, and that photojournalists have ethics and professional ethics that urge them in these situations to respect people's feelings and privacy and respect the sanctity of the deceased, and the Division Office convenes to find out the circumstances of the situation and investigate the incident. To find out the truth of the image and reach its owners, and to find out if they work in the field of journalism or not, and present the results of this to the syndicate council."

Demands to ban filming

A number of Egyptian actors reacted to the situation, commenting on it on their social media pages.

Actor Sabri Fawaz described what happened as harmful and harmful to the family of the deceased and the photographer, and demanded through his Facebook page to respect the feelings of others and prevent filming at funerals.

Hind (daughter of the late actor Saeed Saleh) commented that "the crisis will not end even if they demand the idea for 100 years, without taking into account the family of the deceased."

As for director Amir Ramses, he considered the laughter of the photographers a matter of extreme cruelty, frivolity and lack of appreciation for the family of the deceased, but – on the other hand – he considered that the reactions to the case and demands for their dismissal from work is extremely cruel, and asked everyone to forgive before harsh societal punishment.

In turn, Mahmoud Kamel, a member of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate Council, wrote in a post on his official Facebook account, "To my friends artists who have attacked and exalted and some of them exceeded the right of the profession of journalism because of a picture of two girls - whether they were trained journalists or even citizens smiling during a funeral - I dedicate to you some pictures of the condolences of the mother of the artist Hisham Abbas and the condolences of the father of the artist Dina El-Sherbiny, for nothing but to emphasize that the casual smile of an accidental situation at the funeral or condolence is possible to happen in an instant Capture the camera at the moment of smiling, and transgression is also possible as a result of not receiving sufficient training or because those who practiced this transgression do not belong to the profession of journalism in the first place."

"Therefore, we asked to investigate the incident in order to find out the truth and to heal the wounds of fellow photographers who are forced to cover certain newspapers, perhaps it will be the beginning of setting controls that protect them from the influence of their superiors at work and protect them from impersonating journalists," he said.

Some social media users interacted with the analogy contained in a full post, where some considered it an unfair comparison, and political activist Mona Seif pointed out that the image "included a level of complete separation from the moment of bereavement of a person appearing in the shot as if they were watching a representative scene that is not real," and said about what happened that "there is a human problem in the scene."

Saif stressed that she is against the defamation of the two journalists and against interrogation with them, but institutional steps are needed from newspapers to train young journalists to deal with critical situations sensitively, and the basis remains to appreciate the situation and its weight and not obsession with the moment (...) , especially since journalists are under severe work pressure that has turned them into sales representatives and not journalists," she said.

Parliamentary action

MP Sawsan Hosni Hafez, a member of the People's Assembly, responded to these demands and submitted a briefing request to the head of the National Media Authority, Hussein Zein, about the exploitation of some random photographing of funerals and mourning marquees in order to garner more views without taking into account the sanctity of the deceased or the feelings of the people.

The MP relied on Article 134 of the Constitution and Article 212 of the internal regulations of the People's Assembly, where she called for the need to develop organized mechanisms for the work of journalists and photographers during funerals, and to respect the feelings and privacy of the people, in coordination with the Journalists Syndicate, and that photography be prevented or that there be explicit consent from the family of the deceased.

The last hours before the death of Mustafa Darwish

On Monday, Darwish's funeral took place after the afternoon prayer from the Hosary Mosque in October, provided that the condolences will be at the Police Mosque in Khamael in Sheikh Zayed in Cairo.

The family of the late actor revealed the details of the last hours before his sudden death, explaining that he was busy all day filming one of the free ads to support a charity, and after returning home he could not sleep, and already wrote on his Facebook page that he suffers from insomnia, before feeling acute pain in his chest, to go to the hospital where doctors tried to rescue him, but the heart muscle quickly stopped permanently.

The "Ma'ana to Save a Man" Foundation mourned actor Darwish through its pages, noting that he himself worked with her and took to the streets to help, and ended his life with a good deed.