Syndicate chief denies threatening non-member journalists with jail

Journalists Syndicate head Diaa Rashwan denied reports that he had threatened journalists with jail time if they were working without official syndicate membership.

The privately owned newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm (AMAY) had quoted Rashwan as saying that “by law, non-syndicated youth working in newspapers and news portals risk a year in jail” while speaking at a human rights conference in Alexandria. The paper went on to quote Rashwan as declaring that each profession has specific qualifications, degrees and criteria that must be met, and journalism is no exception.

Rashwan asserted that the journalist who misquoted him would be penalized.

Syndicate board member Khaled al-Balshy told Mada Masr that the quotations were inaccurate and reported out of context.

Rashwan was referring to a “dead and inactive law,” Balshy told Mada Masr, which contradicts the syndicate’s own registration procedures. In fact, a journalist must already have two years of experience working at a newspaper to gain syndicate membership, Balshy pointed out.

“This is a mistake that Diaa Raswan won’t fall for,” Balshy argued.

AMAY had also reported that the Alexandria seminar erupted in commotion after an attendee objected to Raswhan’s statement, declaring, “Are you waiting for us to die, and then give us membership like Mayada Ashraf?”

The accusation referred to a deceased journalist who was killed earlier this year while covering violent clashes between purported Muslim Brotherhood supporters and security forces in Ain Shams for the privately owned paper Al-Dostour.

“Still I will not give it to you,” Rashwan reportedly fired back.

According to AMAY, Rashwan went on to blame newspapers for hiring young journalists who are not syndicate members, describing such practices as a “crime.”

“The syndicate will support young journalists only within the limits of the law,” Rashwan added.

But Balshy said this description was also misleading. During the January 25 revolution anniversary in 2014, 52 journalists were arrested in Egypt — most of them non-syndicate members, and all of whom were released thanks to the syndicate’s intervention, Balshy asserted.

According to Balshy, the first case the syndicate's council handled following its appointment in 2011 was the case of five incarcerated journalists who were not syndicate members.