Al-Masry Al-Youm and the state

 

I told my dear colleague that the newspaper also publishes criticism of the ministry and the minister, and that my relationship with the ministry and the minister was good before the complaint. And most importantly, we work for a newspaper that does not favor anyone at the expense of another, does not like to incite or fabricate, scrutinizes everything it publishes, strives as much as possible to show the truth and opens to all opinions in a professionally disciplined manner.

 

We do not boycott the minister simply because he is a public servant of the Egyptian people, and we do not boycott news about the ministry simply because it belongs to the Egyptian people. For Al-Masry Al-Youm is a newspaper that agrees and disagrees, and that is not whimsical because it belongs to the readers alone.

 

We do not attack officials because we disagree with them, nor do we commend officials because we agree with them. We want the police to develop and work according to an advanced system, and we do not want them to work outside the framework that the law has charted for them. Yet we do sometimes overlook serious mistakes only due to the historical circumstances of the country that is undergoing a state of war.

 

That is why I have declined twice to talk to foreign parties who tried to exploit the investigation with me so as to contend that Egypt suppresses freedoms and is hostile to journalists. I have declined because I know that many countries want to ruin Egypt. I have declined because I did not want to turn the matter into a battle.

 

The newspaper published something that the Interior Ministry considered incorrect although other public and private newspapers published the same thing. It has filed a complaint against us. We respect this because we do not want anyone to exploit the situation and purport Egypt as a country that does not respect the law. We respect the judiciary even if it indicts us because we believe in the state institutions.

 

We are also a professional institution that resorts to the law. We separate the management and the editorial policy. Therefore, we publish what our conscience dictates and what is in the interest of the nation, especially as we are fighting terrorism. We stand firmly in the battle against backwardness. We stand firmly in the battle against corruption. We stand firmly to achieve economic development. We stand firmly to defeat poverty and misery, and achieve social justice. We support the rule of law. We support with an open mind the president's call for a religious discourse that promotes tolerance and compassion, incites virtue and renounces violence and murder in the name of God. We support knowledge. We support a strong and fair state.

 

The way the Interior Ministry handled this case and the one before was wrong. For the newspaper published what a renowned and patriotic journalist wrote, a man who was an ardent supporter of the police, and who spoke in favor of the police in all Arab and foreign satellite channels when those channels fiercely attacked them.

 

Yousry al-Badry is one of the best correspondents at the Interior Ministry. He sent us what the ministry leaders gave him and other public and private newspapers. The ministry mishandled the issue because it could have simply sent us a refutation of what we wrote. Instead, it issued a statement that only Al-Masry Al-Youm published and no other newspaper, satellite channel or website did.

 

Al-Masry Al-Youm was never against the state. It was supportive of the state even in the darkest conditions. It has always been an important tool that uncovered the truth and fought corruption. It was the only newspaper that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi chose to give an interview to when he was defense minister.

 

Al-Masry Al-Youm is a major newspaper with a strong presence in the street and in the state. We have good relations with the presidency, the council of ministers, the armed forces and the judiciary to the extent that we may be perceived as loyal to the regime, but what saves us from this misperception is that we do not stand silent in front of neglect or corruption.

 

We have a healthy relationship with the state. We may one day publish a lengthy interview with a minister and the next day publish a scathing criticism of him. 

 

We know that some officials can embarrass the state. We know that some ministers are not up to this stage we are going through. We know that some deliberately or inadvertently distort the huge projects accomplished. But we also know that there will come the day when they will disappear from the state that we and Sisi seek, while Al-Masry Al-Youm will remain standing tall.