CAIRO: The ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) has invited industry professionals to send suggestions on how to reform the local media industry ahead of an invitation to an open forum to discuss the thorny issue on June 8.
"Reforming Egyptian media, especially state-owned outlets will take a long time to overcome financial corruption in an institution that has been controlled by nepotism and lack of professionalism for a long time." said Salwa El-Geheni, newscast director in Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU).
The head of ERTU, Samy El Sherif, resigned on Monday amid objections by employees of the Union.
State-owned Al-Ahram reported Wednesday that there is a likelihood that SCAF General Tarek El-Mahdi will be heading a National Media Union in the transition period, in the lack of a Ministry of Information. A new head of the ERTU is yet to be named.
Salwa El-Geheni explained that reforming state media starts with restructuring all institutions to prevent financial corruption especially in local channels. This corruption leads to favoritism and pursuit of personal interests, which consequently leads to lack of professionalism in news coverage, she added.
However, publisher Hisham Kassem disagreed with El-Geheni, describing ERTU’s restructuring as a myth.
"Maspero is bound to disintegrate. It is very hard to restructure it," said Kassem. “I think most of its employees have to be given the option of early retirement, and the remaining few professionals can be redirected to other news outlets."
The SCAF’s call for media reform came following the summoning of ONTV satellite channel presenter Reem Maged and activist Hossam El-Hamalawy by the military prosecution for questioning on Monday over statements made on Thursday’s episode of “Baladna Bil Masry” that were critical of the army.
Three judges also were also interrogated at the Judiciary Inspection Department earlier this week for not having permission to give media statements.
The three judges appeared on Al-Jazeera Mubasher Masr satellite channel to talk about cleansing the judiciary and criticized referring civilians to military courts, which the military prosecutor considered an "offence" to the military judiciary in a memorandum presented to Minister of Justice Abdel Aziz Al-Gendy.
"The call to reform media and the recent media crackdowns are definitely contradictory, in addition to the fact that media has to be reformed from within, not through the SCAF," said Naila Hamdy, professor of Journalism at the American University in Cairo.
"But the SCAF is currently running the country, so its opinion has to be included in the process, we have no choice," she added.
Kassem on the other hand describes the media crackdown by the military council as "natural" and will continue to happen until the end of the transitional phase.
"I think that the SCAF’s stance regarding media is very good; they permitted a huge amount of publications, but we have to understand that they belong to a very strict military school of thought that is usually against criticism by the media,” he explained.
The media after the revolution produced mixed models of reporting, many of them are unprofessional and chaotic, Hamdy said, but other models have set the example of professional reporting that we never imagined would emerge.
"Media reform has to include training, teaching and awareness, and a big part of the equation has to ensure accountability, because no serious reform can happen without accountable media," she added.
"Of course media freedom has to be granted, but also accountability of people working in the media has to be ensured in the midst of the chaos we are living in."
Kassem asserted that media cannot be reformed from above, describing the SCAF’s attempts to draw the lines for media reform as "absurd".
"As a publisher, I want media reform to be from the inside and to be independent. We want the media industry to be liberated from its shackles and then everyone will try their best," Kassem added.
