The crisis involving independent daily Al-Dostour escalated on Thursday with nearly 150 journalists and opposition figures staging a demonstration in front of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate's downtown headquarters to protest the sacking earlier this week of Al-Dostour Editor-in-Chief Ibrahim Eissa and condemn the newspaper's publisher and board chairman, Al-Sayed al-Badawy. Protesters said that the sale of the newspaper in August was a "political and security issue," which they described as "suspicious." Al-Badawy reportedly sent a letter to syndicate chief Makram Mohamed Ahmed in which he stressed that the paper would continue to operate and its journalists and employees would receive all their financial and professional rights. He ruled out that any reporters would be dismissed. In a statement issued Thursday, al-Badawy said he had relieved deputy editors-in-chief Mohamed Amin and Futouh al-Shazli from the provisional supervision of the newspaper after journalists agreed to return to work following a meeting with both men. Amin, however, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that he had voluntary left the paper's new administration. "I only accepted the position for a transitional period on condition that it would only last a day or two until the paper was returned to its owners and journalists," he said. Opposition Wafd Party General Secretary Mounir Fakhry Abdelnour, for his part, emphasized that his party was not involved "in any way" with Al-Dostour or with any of the recent decisions by the newspaper's administration that have served to anger public opinion. "Al-Badawy's purchase of the newspaper with a group of shareholders, along with his assumption of the position of board chairman, was a personal rather than party decision," said Abdelnour. In related news, the board of the Journalists Syndicate on Thursday condemned Eissa's dismissal, declaring that it would "stand by him" and his lawsuit. The board also urged journalists to continue work as usual until the crisis had abated. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
