The Press Syndicate has rejected the decision of Tahrir newspaper’s management to stop printing the paper in a meeting on Sunday.
The syndicate rejected the closure as the newspaper has not followed the legal procedures of including the syndicate, whilst also harming dozens of journalists.
The privately-owned Tahrir newspaper used to print on a daily basis, until the management decided to stop the print run last week, while downsizing the number of journalists working at the title.
The decision sparked angry reactions from the journalists who were left without jobs, as well as other journalists, and chiefly the syndicate. The Press Syndicate meeting followed a stand by a group of journalists who protested in front of the syndicate’s building against the newspaper’s closure.
During the syndicate meeting, the board decided to create a “black list” of all the businessmen involved in similar incidents, and in banning newspapers illegally and expelling journalists, whilst also ordering journalists not to cooperate with them.
The syndicate has also decided to escalate the matter to the Supreme Council of the Press (SCP), which is mandated to undertake all decisions regarding newspaper printing and giving permissions for them.
According to an official syndicate statement, they will call on the SCP to take the legal procedures required in this case, which would remove all publishing permissions for Tahrir newspaper’s owner, Akmal Kortam, if he insists on the decision. Kortam said he will review the decision, and come up with a new one within the next week.
“Journalism is not a profitable job, but newspapers are owned by the people and readers who have the right to know,” the statement said, referring to the outstanding example of Tahrir newspaper.
According to a statement by Tahrir newspaper on the day of its closure, the board said: “There has been an intention to close the paper since it was bought. It has suffered for 28 months to expand in launching new websites for the paper.”
The new websites planned are “Tahrir news, Wikileaks Parliament, Tahrir Live, Tahrir Sports, Tahrir Economy, Multimedia Tahrir, Huna Al-Qahera”.
