Journalists Syndicate General Assembly postponed again

The Journalists Syndicate's General Assembly was adjourned on Friday for the second time this month due to low turnout.

The meeting has now been scheduled for April 1, after it was postponed for the first time from March 4, when the required quorum of registered syndicate members did not attend.

Friday saw no more than 240 members show up to the assembly, according to Khaled al-Balshy, a member of the syndicate's board. The required quorum is 25 percent, or 2,200 out of the syndicate’s 8,800 members.

Members had received an invitation to the meeting by email, accompanied by a report of the General Assembly’s activities and its general budget.

Held annually, the meeting was due to go through the General Assembly’s set agenda, which includes a review and approval of the year’s budget, and a review of the activities of various committees.

In addition to this fixed agenda, Balshy says, the reform of the process by which journalists gain syndicate membership, the state of media and journalist freedoms, as well as wages and the economic conditions of journalists were additional agenda items for discussion.

“These items correspond to the alarming condition of media freedoms, and the recent random firings of a number of journalists,” Balshy told Mada Masr.

Membership in the syndicate is limited to contracted journalists working for registered print newspapers, while the majority working in the field practice the job without contractual arrangements or in digital media.

Asked whether the low turnout reflects a lack of engagement from the syndicate’s members with its functions, Balshy says that this has always been the case unless the General Assembly is set to elect a new board. For example, in 2014, no more than 13 members signed up for the General Assembly. So in a way, there is more engagement today, he explained.

Balshy, however, suggests that the 25 percent quorum and the timing (from 10 am to 12 pm on a Friday) during which members are allowed to show up, limit the likelihood of the assembly convening.

That said, he recognizes that a general political stagnation is behind the broad non-attendance of members, as well as a longstanding limits to the role of the syndicate and its being perceived merely as the source of a monthly bonus (members receive a LE1,000 monthly allocation for training and development) and prestige.

Balshy and others are pushing for a new law regulating the syndicate, which balances between its role as a service provider and a contributor to improving journalists’ livelihoods, and a protector of their freedoms and broader interests.