The Journalists Syndicate board has called on syndicate members to convene at headquarters at 1 p.m. on Wednesday for a meeting to discuss developments in the "crisis" of its two-week dispute with the Interior Ministry.
The board's proposed meeting is the latest in a series of actions taken by the syndicate in objection to the storming of headquarters by Interior Ministry personnel on May 1. According to a statement, Wednesday's meeting will discuss ongoing efforts to preserve the "dignity of journalists", in the frame of the storming and subsequent arrest of two journalists inside the headquarters.
The meeting will review a report drawn up by the board on the past two weeks' developments and on the negotiations made seeking a resolution to the crisis. It will also tackle legal aspects of the issue and measures that could be taken to solve it.
The armed security forces' storming of the syndicate on May 1 was an unprecedented move, and resulted in the arrest of Amr Badr, editor-in-chief of yanair.net, and a journalist working for the same news website named Mahmoud al-Sakka, who had taken shelter in the building. This sparked uproar among syndicate members, who claimed that the police had broken the law in entering the building without proper authorization and prior permission.
According to Yehyia Qallash, the head of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, the two journalists, Badr and Sakka, had been issued with warrants by the State Security Prosecution on charges of "inciting protests" following several weeks of anti-government demonstrations centered on the transfer of two Red Sea islands from Egyptian to Saudi control.
Qallash called for the resignation of Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar following the arrest of the journalists.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
