News briefing
Written by: Committee for Justice
Geneva: November 21, 2023
Four Egyptian journalists at Radio and TV Magazine submitted their resignations to Hussein Zain, President of the Egyptian National Media Authority, in protest against what they described as “obvious obstinacy” by the management, and its complete refusal to grant the magazine’s journalists their financial rights.
Shelved Investigations:
The journalists had demanded the administration to disburse dues that were stopped by the same administration’s decision, as well as dues for those who had been retired, pointing out that everyone is suffering from extremely harsh financial conditions amidst inflation and Egypt’s worst economic crisis.
The resigning journalists explained that the dues they are demanding had been stopped by the administration due to an investigation into allegations of financial violations, including “illegitimately obtaining benefits and profits by disbursing periodic allowance amounts, excellence allowances, and cash balances for leave balances in violation, and facilitating the wrongful seizure of financial amounts”. The case was concluded by being administratively shelved by the Higher Public Funds Prosecution without any direction or recommendation.
The four resigning journalists are Mohamed Sameeh, Ashraf Abdel Hadi, Dalia Abu Shaqqa (Deputy Editors-in-Chief of the magazine), and Omar Ammar (Secretary of the magazine’s editorial board).
Calls for Respecting the Principle of the Rule of Law:
The Committee for Justice demands the editorial management of the Radio and TV magazine, and the Egyptian National Media Authority, to adhere to the principle of the rule of law, and respect the outcome of investigations conducted on the resigned journalists. CFJ also called for the payment of stopped and overdue dues, the cessation of obstinacy in financial rights of the resigned journalists and other journalists of the magazine, and respect for international and Egyptian labor laws binding on the magazine’s management.
