Salah Eissa Discusses the Problems Facing Opposition Press in a Seminar at the BA
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Alexandria—
The BA Dialogue Forum held its bimonthly seminar on Saturday, 7 June 2008, entitled “Dilemmas of the Contemporary Opposition Press” by Mr. Salah Eissa, Editor in Chief of Alkahera Newspaper and chaired by Dr. Fathi Abou Ayana, Professor, Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University.
Salah Eissa stated that challenges facing opposition press ten years ago changed radically at present. Opposition press was limited to the papers issued by opposition parties, but now it includes private newspapers.
He spoke about the emergence of opposition press during the rule of President Sadat, and how President Sadat re-established party pluralism in Egypt, in an attempt to strike a balance between the army and the political power. Eissa added that President Sadat adopted economic openness and allied with the United States of America rather than the Soviet Union, a coalition that could not be achieved without party, press, and intellectual plurality. He added that party pluralism at that time was marginalized and could not trespass certain boundaries.
Salah Eissa pointed out that opposition press faced several problems including laws and regulations restricting its freedom, since the parties’ chairmen used to monitor what was published in their newspapers and had the right to interfere in the editors’ work. Opposition newspapers also lacked efficient journalists.
He added that there is a contradiction between a party discourse and its newspaper discourse. He maintained that Al-Wafd Newspaper, which reflects the ideology of a liberal party, took several stances against artistic and intellectual creativity in some issues of Egyptian public opinion.
He added that the problem of exercising freedom of expression in Egypt lies in the use of aggressive language, pointing out that freedom of press is the mere responsibility of the journalist.