Al-Dostour crisis: New owner changes paper HQ

The new board manager of Al-Dostour newspaper, Reda Edward, said he has informed the Supreme Council of Journalism, a governmental body, of a change at the paper’s headquarters. The new address will appear in tomorrow’s edition, he said.

“Increasing demands by striking journalists have rendered negotiations with them impossible,” said Edward. “The Journalists Syndicate’s approval of the protesters' demands regarding the formation of a new board was unprecedented in the history of state-run and independent papers.”

Edward said he agreed to buy out the share belonging to the newspaper's former manager, al-Sayyed al-Badawi, also chairman of the Wafd Party, to emphasise his rejection of journalists’ interference in administrative issues.

He also reiterated his objection to journalists' demands to include a number of public figures in the new board, saying that the administration will be composed exclusively of the newspaper's owners, according to each one’s share.

Edward said the new board's formation will be declared by the end of this week.

Regarding the editorial staff, Edward expressed his readiness to reinstate both Ibrahim Eissa, the sacked chief editor, and the paper's former executive managing editor, Ibrahim Mansour, and to retain other members of the team in order to appease disgruntled Al-Dostour journalists.

Edward warned that in case journalists do not resume their work he will take on new staff from outside of Al-Dostour, but he is currently delaying such a move out of respect for the paper's journalists.

On the other hand, prominent poet Ahmed Fouad Negm, a former Al-Dostour columnist, announced he has withdrawn his membership in the Wafd Party as a sign of solidarity with the striking journalists. During a visit yesterday to the newspaper’s headquarters, Negm invited Al-Dostour’s expelled chief editor Eissa to join the strike and urged the journalists to stick to their demands.

“By sacking Eissa, al-Badawi violated Wafd principles,” said Negm, who said he could not remain the member of a politcal party whose chairman uses his own money to gag free press.

Translated from the Arabic Edition.