Member’s suspension reveals Journalists Syndicate failings

Journalists Syndicate Deputy Abeer al-Saady announced on Saturday night on her Facebook page that she has decided to suspend her participation in the board of the Journalists Syndicate. Saady said her decision is a reaction to the failure of the syndicate to take adequate action against the strong wave of violations against journalists that has occurred recently.

In the past months, journalists have faced an escalating crackdown, which includes assaults on the job and arrests on terrorism charges. Several human rights organizations have condemned the mounting violations against journalists.

“These violations and practices represent a shocking and unprecedented phenomenon in the journalistic practice. However, it’s still not enough to make our syndicate feel the danger and prompt it to begin collective mobilization to contain it and hold those responsible for the killing of journalists and the threatening of their lives and safety accountable. This was a shock to me and other members of the profession,” Saady wrote in her statement.

Saady says that the syndicate had let its role be limited to that of a “helpless ambulance man,” who is only preoccupied with emergency response without taking enough steps to keep the state from repeating these violations.

The syndicate’s role during this strong wave of oppression against journalists has consisted of appealing to police to release arrested journalists, holding vigils for journalists killed on the job, and issuing statements of condemnation.

Saady says in her statement that while these are appreciated efforts on an individual level, the syndicate is responsible for taking more organized steps on an institutional level, to ensure that the state stops oppressive measures against journalists.

Khaled al-Balshy, Journalists Syndicate board member, told Mada Masr that the frustration that led Saady to resign is something that all members of the syndicate suffer from.

Balshy says that it is undeniable that the syndicate is falling short. He says that the reason for this is a combination of failures within the board, lack of participation of from the syndicate’s general assembly and an overwhelming attack on journalists by the state.

“Journalism in Egypt is facing its worst crisis in a long time, and the syndicate is not able to fulfill its role completely because of many circumstances,” he says.

Balshy says that the syndicate’s tools against state oppression are either mobilizing in the street to create pressure or seeking judicial steps. However, he says that in the absence of an active general assembly and with laws that don’t support journalists, the syndicate is unable to do either.

“The third tool is continued negotiation, which is what the syndicate has to resort to when its ability to pressure and impose its demands is limited,” Balshy says.

As an example, Balshy says that the number of journalists arrested on the anniversary of January 25 exceeds the number of journalists arrested during a number of years under normal circumstances.

He says that as a result, the syndicate’s efforts were geared towards running around police stations and convincing police to release the journalists. This constant need for emergency response doesn’t allow the syndicate the time and power to take more preemptive steps to pressure the state to stop these practices.

The syndicate released a strongly worded statement in late January “warning” the police of the ramifications of what it called “barbaric” actions against the journalists. The syndicate said that 19 journalists were arrested on that day.

Saady says that her decision is meant as a wake up call for the syndicate to realize the “catastrophic ramifications of silence in response to this attack on the safety, security and dignity of journalists.”