(Photo Public Domain)
By Ibrahim al-Masri
The Ministry of Information is set to apply new austerity measures in an attempt to decrease spending. According to Minister of Information Salah Abd Al-Maqsud, the ministry has already cut spending from EGP 270m to EGP 208m this year.
During a meeting of the Shura Council’s Financial and Economic Affairs Committee regarding the country’s media budget, Al-Maqsud said: “My colleagues and I have been wronged, and have been subject to classist discrimination within the Egyptian Radio and Television Union [ERTU],” adding that, “a small number of people within the ERTU, including the president of Egyptian Television and those in charge of administration, have received upwards of anywhere from EGP 1m to EGP 9m as a result of corruption and the hiring of foreign journalists.” He did, however, go on to praise General Tariq Hashmi for his work with the ERTU.
Maqsud added: “There are currently 41,000 employees working within the ERTU, whose budget totals EGP 226m per month. This amount is not enough for us to even pay to shine our shoes.” He added that even as a minister, he receives only EGP 1,424 a month in pay, and has not been granted a seat in Egypt’s cabinet. “Statistics show that we have inherited a heavy legacy, as there are upwards of 1,250 workers employed in our regional station, a burden too large to bear for an entity run by 150 individuals.”
Regarding the ERTU, he said: “I cannot close the organisation, but I can reduce spending, a fact which will cause the national newspaper to suffer losses,” adding that, “we have inherited a corrupt system, and are attempting to prevent those who have worked with private satellite companies from working in Egyptian state TV, however there are many people who register using false identities.”
He further called for the shutting down of a number of studios located in Egypt’s Media Production City (EMPC) in order to decrease spending, pointing out that EGP 31m has been allotted for the transmission of the Quran on Egyptian airwaves, despite the fact that such radio programmes often do not make it to remote regions such as Sinai, Hala’ib, and Shalateen. He called for the ERTU’s budget to be increased and not decreased, and for officials to not think of the issue in terms of profits or losses.
