Last September, Tahrir Gadid newspaper closed after incurring huge financial losses. It has  since been converted into a website, causing a large number of its journalists to be laid off.

Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper  sacked over 250 journalists, among whom some also worked for satellite TV channels. Journalists at Shorouk newspaper staged a strike accusing the administration of ignoring their demands and its failure to set a timetable for resolving the financial crisis, as well as neglecting to pay their outstanding dues for eight months.

Last September, Tahrir Gadid newspaper closed after incurring huge financial losses. It has  since been converted into a website, causing a large number of its journalists to be laid off.

Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper  sacked over 250 journalists, among whom some also worked for satellite TV channels. Journalists at Shorouk newspaper staged a strike accusing the administration of ignoring their demands and its failure to set a timetable for resolving the financial crisis, as well as neglecting to pay their outstanding dues for eight months.

Dismissal notice

“My colleagues and I have filed a lawsuit against the newspaper for which we worked for over seven years because our rights were not respected,” says a journalist who goes by the pseudonym Adham Nassar. “The SoJ still pays us our monthly technology allowance on which our families live.”

Nassar started working for a national newspaper, whose name he refused to disclose, in 2006 and was then discharged because the administration sacked freelance reporters to ease financial burdens.

He had previously worked for more than three years at Al-Dustour newspaper headed by Ibrahim Eissa, but because of political differences with the former Mubarak regime, which swept through the newspaper, it was sold to a businessman who laid off its journalists.

Nassar then found a job opportunity with a prestigious newspaper and he became its correspondent, together with another colleague, at its office in the Upper Egypt Governorate of Sohag. Feeling that he had finally settled down in his new job, he got married and fathered two children. The newspaper did not honor its promise to sign a contract with Nassar and when he and his colleagues staged a sit-in at Tahrir Square during the January 25 revolution, the newspaper’s administration concluded contracts with both Nassar and his colleague. Two years after joining the SoJ, Nassar was fired.

Only taken by force

Former head of the Governorates Department at Tahrir Gadid newspaper Ibrahim Moussa says since 2013 some 500 journalists have been laid off across Egypt. Nearly 40 journalists and translators at the Egypt Independent newspaper and its website – issued by the Al-Masry Al-Youm Foundation – were discharged in the first half of 2013 without any compensation.

Twenty-four journalists were also dismissed from Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper in the first half of 2014 to reduce spending in provincial offices. In addition, 143 journalists were dismissed from Youm 7 newspaper and its website in 2014 for restructuring purposes.

In June 2015, Shorouk newspaper and its website fired 18 journalists. On November 1, 2015, 35 journalists of masralarabia.com were sacked following the partners’ withdrawal.

Former SoJ Secretary Abeer Saadi says owners of independent newspapers are taking advantage of the Labor Act against journalists. Most party and independent newspapers, says Saadi, openly oblige journalists to sign a resignation form before signing the labor contract. “To get used to wrongdoings is worse than the wrongdoings themselves,” she says.

Saadi maintains that journalists are accustomed to compromising their rights and succumbing to their employers’ demands due to a lack of trust in SoJ support. She suggests a legal awareness campaign on rights targeting young journalists, appealling to journalists to revolt against the prevailing situation and fight for their rights.

Uneconomical newspaper administrations

Professor Safwat Alim who works in the Faculty of Mass Communication at Cairo University attributes the root causes of the crisis faced by these newspapers to their uneconomical administrations. Some newspapers, says Alim, are either overstaffed or with exaggerated wages.

He argues that the advertising monopoly by some agencies known for their fraudulent practices, in collaboration with corrupt individuals, has adversely impacted press foundations’ economies and advertisement returns amid fierce competition.

Printed newspapers, says Alim, have limited readership for a number of reasons, such as poor sports coverage and a lack of real political events. A large number of readers have therefore turned to websites, causing reduced circulation of printed newspapers.

Postponement and procrastination

Asma Idris has worked as an editor at Sharea newspaper since 2011. At first, there was no labor contract. She had to wait until 2013 to sign the contract and apply for SoJ membership. The newspaper’s editor-in-chief however used to create many problems to harass old journalists like her. “He refused our work although we did it as he wished and on time,” says Idris. “Later, the chairman stood against us, and we have not been paid our wages since May 2013.”

When Idris and her colleagues demanded their rights, they were met with postponement and procrastination, not to mention bad treatment and threats of dismissal. “We remained patient and hopeful that the administration’s policy would change, but to no avail,” she says. “The situation became even worse when we demanded our monthly salaries. My colleagues and I approached the SoJ and the Supreme Press Council and we were punished for a legal mistake made by the newspaper for which we were not responsible, and our allowance was suspended.”

Businessmen’s interests

SoJ councilmember Abu Saoud Mohammed who is also a journalist at Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper says the crisis facing private journalism in Egypt is due to the interference of businesspersons in the edited material, which happens in several newspapers.

He asserts that the interference by the owners of some private newspapers involved decisions about what must or must not be published. During the last cabinet reshuffle, says Mohammed, some newspapers’ owners even suggested names of certain candidate ministers due to special mutual interests.

Under Egyptian law, editors are not permitted to hold shares in the newspaper they work for to protect them from the owner’s interference and possible discretionary dismissals. Some press circles are trying to stop this, describing it as owners’ blackmail of their journalists.

Mohammed believes that private newspapers in Egypt are victims of business community interests, especially since SoJ regulations restrict their freedom and have certain clauses incommensurate with the present situation, particularly their failure to hold the newspaper’s owner accountable for committing violations or taking decisions jeopardizing the future of the newspaper and its workers. “It may serve the interests of state journalism not only because it is the strongest, but also because its strongest contestant has started to collapse,” he said.

No radical solutions

SoJ’s only response to Nassar and his colleagues was requesting them to fill out forms. The SoJ later decided to only approve new membership applications of the journalists of that newspaper when the problem of Nassar and his colleagues was resolved.

Repertoire of the Journalism Independence Advocacy Committee Bashir Adl says the current press situation today is worse than ever before. Furloughing journalists is an episode in an endless series because the SoJ provides no radical solutions.

Neither the SoJ nor the state, says Adl, can compel newspaper owners to keep their newspapers open and not to lay off their workers, the weakest link, for economic reasons. He suggests a national journalism authority that comprises all journalists; otherwise, the SoJ would face a major crisis, leading to large strikes increasingly joined by journalists by the day.

E-media

With declining printed media, Nassar says he has found a job opportunity at a website against L.E. 600 a month (US $77), though not much, helps him put some food on the table.

Dr. Mahmud Mahgoub, a visiting professor of journalism at Egyptian universities, says printed press is standing at the brink of the abyss and may cease to exist in the coming years. The real problem it faces is material losses, declining advertising returns, and limited readership. All newspapers share only a half a million readers, against the thriving e-media which has attracted a large audience at local, regional and global levels since they provide news at fewer times and at lower costs. Internet-connected mobile phones have also enabled people to have a look at news updates with much ease and without the need to buy traditional printed newspapers at specific times.

Expanding the e-media, says Mahgoub, is very natural given that young men follow news developments online and do not wait for printed media, which fails to cover news as rapidly.

He argues that another reason for increasing popularity of e-journalism is the spread of citizen journalism and social media, where people can upload pictures and video clips. Government officials, recognizing the importance of this genre of journalism for the public, are now more responsive to reports and complaints published on these websites.

Another opinion

Chairman of Tahrir newspaper Akmal Qurtam says his printed newspapers, which used to employ 200 journalists, stopped because of the L.E. 55 million (US $7,000,000) losses in printing costs, staff salaries, and many other administration problems. Those with contracts, says Qurtam, will work on the website, while others will be laid off, except for those with experience and efficiency. He believes that in the future, e-media will triumph over traditional journalism.

Owner of Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper Salah Diab says what is happening to his newspaper is a restructuring procedure – comprehensive periodic maintenance. “We have discovered that 60 percent of our journalists are part-timers,” he says. “So we have requested them to choose between the newspaper and satellite stations. The newspaper only wants full-time journalists to maintain its reputation because a comparison between satellites TV channels and printed newspapers in terms of pay is not fair. Journalists will send their scoops to these channels rather than to the newspaper.