New Journalism Law Sparks Anger in Egypt

Half of the members of Egypt’s Journalists Union Council have rejected amendments made by the country’s House of Representatives to the journalism law.

They stressed that the government had developed “mock amendments” that kept the essence of articles restricting the freedom of journalism.

A member of the Union’s Council, Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafiz, said that the journalism and information law is “an assassination of journalism”.

He stressed that “the articles of the law violate the independence of the profession, restrict freedom of opinion and expression, and make the executive authority a watchdog on press institutions”.

He added: “We should have stood up against the law from the first day.

“We can acquire the best lessons from our predecessors, when journalists during the rule of Mubarak stood up against a similar law in 1993.

“They held sit-ins with their union and demonstrated until it was cancelled.”(NAN)