"The world listens to Egypt," reads the Freedom and Justice newspaper headline; "Revolutionary speech in the UN," says Al-Shorouk. The front pages of private and state-owned newspapers Thursday all herald President Mohamed Morsy's speech in front of the UN General Assembly Wednesday.
Each local paper puts its expected slant on the speech at the 67th session of the General Assembly and Morsy's visit to the US.
Ruling party mouthpiece Freedom and Justice says Egypt's foreign policy is being revamped following the speech, while independent daily Al-Shorouk highlights the fact that this was the first appearance of an Egyptian president since 1989. State flagship Al-Ahram focuses on official positions that the president's speech pointed to, focusing on Morsy's comments regarding international treaties and use of the words "justice" and "freedom."
Al-Ahram bypasses details of where and when the speech occurred, leading instead with a quote: "Egypt is looking forward to establishing a state that seeks justice, freedom and social justice and that has achieved effective steps in the pursuit of the Renaissance Project."
The second paragraph of the same story to a great extent resembles state media coverage of former President Hosni Mubarak's foreign trips, writing that Morsy "has stressed the need to have a Middle East free of nuclear arms and weapons of mass destruction and has called on the international community to support the rights of the Palestinian people."
Al-Shorouk takes a different tack, focusing on Morsy's omission of the word "Israel" when he advocated establishing a Palestinian state. The paper also highlights Morsy's call to stop bloodshed in Syria and his statement calling anyone who insults Prophet Mohamed an enemy.
In addition to dedicating parts of the first and second pages to Morsy’s visit, Freedom and Justice’s inside spread also has the same focus, with the headline "Egypt returns to the list of greats."
Freedom and Justice also has a story on American and European coverage of a meeting between the US administration and Morsy under the headline, "Western newspapers: Egypt digs her name in gold with the global community." The paper reports that at the meeting Sinai security and Egypt's desire for the US to change its policy on Israel were topics of discussion.
However the story includes no excerpts from international newspapers on the radical breakthrough Egypt has apparently achieved in terms of foreign policy.
Morsy's party paper also trumpets the economic benefits it says Egypt will see from the visit under the headline, "The economic return…the citizen is the first beneficiary." The paper cites economic experts as saying the president's trip and talks with several heads of state will spur the "wheel of production" and economic growth.
The majority of newspapers also cover British Prime Minister David Cameron's pledge to return to Egypt 100 million British pounds smuggled by former officials to banks in the UK or in the form of assets and property. The British government has said Egypt did not submit enough evidence that proves the implication of former regime symbols in corruption cases related to the smuggled money to UK.
As for internal affairs, the problems of the Constituent Assembly have returned to grace the pages of local papers.
Privately owned Al-Dostour newspaper criticizes a draft constitutional article on freedom of expression that would allow the closure of newspapers through judicial rulings and the imposition of fines against newspapers and journalists. Al-Dostour, whose editor-in-chief is on trial for defaming the president, writes that the proposed article "confiscates human thought and opinion, muzzles speech and is an explicit conspiracy and violation of press freedom and liberties."
In state-run Al-Akhbar, Socialist Popular Alliance Party leader Abdel Ghaffar Shokr says that several secular parties have agreed in principle to withdraw from the Constituent Assembly if press freedoms and women's rights are not preserved in the new constitution.
Al-Ahram quotes former presidential candidate and assembly member Amr Moussa as saying that disagreements between the secular and Islamist assembly members are threatening the mission of writing the constitution.
Al-Shorouk quotes disqualified presidential hopeful Hazem Salah Abu Ismail as calling for a new assembly altogether.
Egypt’s papers:
Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt
Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size
Al-Gomhurriya: Daily, state-run
Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run
Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned
Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned
Al-Watan: Daily, privately owned
Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party
Youm7: Daily, privately owned
Al-Tahrir: Daily, privately owned
Freedom and Justice: Daily, published by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party
Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Nasserist Party
Al-Nour: Official paper of the Salafi Nour Party
