CAIRO - Egypt's Embassy in Washington forwarded a letter of complaint to a widely circulated US newspaper for carrying editorials criticising policies of the Egyptian Government with no evidence. Egyptian Ambassador in the US Sameh Shoukri complained to The Washington Post daily over a November 5 editorial entitled "Egypt's Mr Mubarak moves to lawless repression". "This editorial is a source of concern for Egypt. In ordinary cases, we send reply through the readers' page. However, this gross trespass by your newspaper led us to file an official complaint," Shoukri wrote in the letter. He added in his letter, forwarded to the Washington Post's Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli, that the newspaper had published 24 articles, including 12 editorials, about Egypt since March 2008. "All of theses stories had criticised Egypt and could be described as hostile,�" he wrote. "Sure the news paper has the right to publish its point of view. However, according to Senator Daniel Moynihan, no-one can impose facts from his point of view," Shoukri wrote. The Egyptian envoy slammed the November 6 editorial as an example of the indifferent, irresponsible journalism, which gives no evidence over its allegations. The article, unsigned assumed that the Egyptian Government detained and tortured hundreds of activists ahead of this month's polls. It also described Egypt as a police state. In an unprecedented move for senior officials in the Egyptian government, Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali, in an article in The Washington Post last Friday, pointed out that what is published internationally related to the domestic situation in Egypt is unfair, and noted that the economic situation has evolved significantly in five years. Ghali said that the alternative to the current policies of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party, which defends the civic state and equality among all citizens without discrimination, is a religious state and religious discrimination.
