MENA slams Al-Ahram for accusations in NYT article controversy

A new contender appeared in the most recent round of media war between the state-owned Al-Ahram daily newspaper and the US-based New York Times (NYT), as the Egyptian Middle East News Agency (MENA) released a statement on Saturday asking Al-Ahram to “adhere to the most basic professional rules.”

The state-owned agency’s statement said they were following the ongoing debate between the two newspapers “with great discomfort,” and expressed “sorrow and dissatisfaction at being dragged into this matter.”

The statement asks all of MENA's subscribers, including Al-Ahram, “to follow the most basic professional rules and clearly attribute MENA’s reports and news pieces to the agency, instead of making reckless accusations against it.”

The controversy began when Al-Ahram summarized a Kirkpatrick article published in the NYT on October 7, wrongfully portraying the American columnist as praising Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following his visit to New York to speak before the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

The newspaper quoted specific passages from the Kirkpatrick piece out of context to make it appear that Kirkpatrick was praising Sisi.

In truth, the original article actually questioned local media’s coverage of Sisi’s visit, in which Kirkpatrick stated that Sisi had cemented his power and secured wide popularity without facing much dissent by capitalizing “on fears of the chaos that has engulfed surrounding countries.”

The misrepresentation in Al-Ahram’s piece caused outrage on social media, prompting the portal’s English-language website to issue an apology on Friday. Ahram Online claimed that its piece was drawn from MENA, which had originally distorted the NYT article, and that other local papers ran the same story.

In the apology letter, Al-Ahram said it regretted the error, which occurred “at a time when the current editorial management of the newspaper and the organization as a whole is bent on restoring its credibility and asserting the traditions of proper and ethical journalism based on the highest standards of the profession.”

These efforts come amid “low ethical and professional standards” in Egyptian journalism, the editorial continued.

In MENA’s statement, the agency defended itself, emphasizing its “commitment to accuracy and credibility" throughout its various reports "which are written by a special and qualified group of the most efficient journalists in the Arab world.”

However, a separate statement published by Al-Ahram in Arabic titled, “The hidden truth behind what Ahram and NYT published,” the newspaper defended its credibility and claimed it was targeted by the NYT and Kirkpatrick, who “rejects the political discourse since June 30 and vehemently defends the terrorist organization,” referring to the Muslim Brotherhood.

While the Arabic-language editorial briefly referred to taking the review from MENA, which they said misquoted the piece, the editorial focused on attacking NYT’s coverage of the Middle East and accusing Kirkpatrick of falsely propagating the idea that the Egyptian state was suppressing freedoms and violating human rights in order to cast doubt on the popular will to oust the former Brotherhood government.

In spite of this, MENA’s statement shows restraint, as the agency chooses to stick to the nationalistic tone the newspaper adheres to. “We have to acknowledge that all our journalistic material is closely tied to national principles and interests, at a time where the Arab world is targeted by a despicable conspiracy trying to fragment it into small states in war with each other over religious, sectarian and ethnic basis,” MENA’s statement added.  

Al-Ahram had pointed out that while other Egyptian newspapers published a similar article, Kirkpatrick only focused on the state-owned newspaper, in an attempt to indicate that it was acting on higher orders.