Heads of newspapers and satellite television channels met on Saturday to discuss whether or not to give prominent Salafi Hazem Salah Abu Ismail media coverage.
The meeting occurred nearly a week after the former secretary general of the Arab Journalist Union, Makram Mohamed Ahmed, called on the press syndicate council to pass a resolution to prevent the media from covering stories about Abu Ismail.
According to a statement from the Press Syndicate Ahmed’s call came “on the back of insults and threats made by [Abu Ismail] and his supporters to journalists and media professionals.”
Last week the Secretary General of the Press Syndicate, Kerem Mahmoud sent a memo to the Press Syndicate calling for them to ratify this decision.
Mahmoud said “Abu Ismail is a creation of the media, which gave him more than 54 hours of air time which contributed to amplifying this phenomenon.”
Editor in chief of Al-Shorouk newspaper, Emad Hussein, confirmed the meeting took place but was unable to attend. He said that representatives from newspapers Al-Masry Al-Youm and El-Fagr were present at the meeting.
Abu Ismail recently announced that he would form a new political party and lead an Islamist coalition to contest all available seats in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
