Mohamed Mahmoud Wael

Journalistic Syndicate:

—Established in 1941

—Considered a mirror to the freedom of journalism and speech in the society.

—In the lights of what happened recently,here is the explanation:

.Journalist Makram Ahmed:"The union of journalists is the only solution for the journalistic syndicate dispute with the ministry of internal affairs "

"The current situation is simple,because no newspaper will be shut down or journalists prevented from writing"

"The main case lies is the way the the board of the syndicate dealt with two colleagues who sought asylum at the syndicate for demonstrating when they are wanted for justice in the first place.Therefore,the syndicate in any case whatsoever will not be a sanctuary for any wanted person whether this operation was described as a law enforcement act"

"Treatment of the police to journalists is not alright,because putting a seige around the syndicate and preventing journalists from doing their job is unacceptable.They should have apologised and helped journalists to do their jobs"

"That is why he called for the necessity of forming a committee of investigation that include experienced journalists in order to set some regulations for the future and to know the limits of police interfernce in the affairs of the syndicate in the context of respect of both parties to the law"

—The decisions that the General Assembly agreed on:

1.Insisting on the resignation of the Minister of Internal Affairs.

2.President of Egypt apologize to the journalistic crowd for the crime of purging into the home of journalists(syndicate) and what followed.

3.Releasing all journalistis in jail.

4.Issuing decrees condemning the assault on the syndicate.

5.Issuing a decree that prevents imprisoning journalists when it comes to publication issues.

6.Procedures that include"Inviting all Egyptian newspapers and websites to put a logo that says"No to banning publication....No to Restricting press"

7.Inviting all satelite channels to state their contempt concerning the brutal assault on journalists.

8.Refusal of turning accusations to the dean of journalists who is the elected representative of the General Assembly.

9.Publishing the name of Minister of internal affairs and publishing only a negative picture(which was removed recently)only to prevent all news of Ministry of Internal affairs until the resignation of the Minister.

10.Declining the statement of United States Department of State and refusing any foreign intrusion in the affairs of Egyptian journalism.

11.Raising a law suit against the Ministry of Internal Affiars to judge the officials for the seige of the syndicate.

12.Putting a black badge on the first pages of Sunday edition.

13.Renewing the faith in the board of the syndicate until the end of the crisis.

14.A meeting on next Tuesday to decide whether a strike will be made.

15.Inviting all experienced writers to write about the crime of purging into the syndicate in their articles.

16.Inviting all deputant journalists to present requests for investigating the issue.

17.Continuation of demonstrating until next Tuesday.

18.Forming a board from the syndicate to manage the issue.

—On the other hand,there was a meeting on Sunday in the Ahram institution under the label of"Journalists' family".

—Mohamed Alaam stated"The syndicate does not have the right to act as a political party and the statement of their meeting called for forming an objective committee to reveal what the truth about what happened."

"The statement of the meeting of "Journalists' family" refused any seige on the syndicate and the syndicate and the individuals in the meeting expressed their contempt to the supporting attitude of the high board of Journalism to the attitude of the board of the syndicate.

— One more issue to stress on is that in the meeting of the General Assembly,there was a discussion about preparing regulations of a "blacklist" against the enemies of Journalism in addition to discussing the ways of escalation.

All this has led to the break down of demonstrators for a single cause into two:Supporting the General Assembly and Supporting the Journalists'family.

Is there going to be a solution for all this?

Let's wait and see.