"News Websites" Ignite a Crisis Between the Minister of Information and the Journalists' Syndicate in Egypt

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A government proposal to regulate the work of Egyptian news websites has reopened an old file that the profession has not yet resolved, which is the status of digital platform journalists in relation to traditional union protection. What initially appeared to be a technical call to organize the sector quickly turned into a real test of the limits of the powers of a union established by a law enacted decades before the emergence of digital journalism, in the face of a technological transformation that has surpassed the frameworks set by that law.

The story began when the Minister of State for Information, Diaa Rashwan, during his meeting with the editors-in-chief of licensed news websites, proposed the idea of an institutional entity to which the websites would join as institutions without their individual workers, citing the model of the Cinema Industry Chamber established in the 1940s as an organizational framework for industry owners rather than practitioners. This proposal came in the context of a series of extensive meetings held by the ministry with all components of the media system, in preparation for a comprehensive media conference commissioned by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to discuss the future of the sector. However, the lack of a precise description of the boundaries of this entity, and the overlap of discussions about it with problems faced by the journalists of the websites themselves in the same meeting, opened the door to conflicting interpretations that quickly turned into a crisis of trust.

The Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate, which was established under Law No. 76 of 1970, derives its sensitivity towards any parallel entity from Article 77 of the Egyptian Constitution, which guarantees the independence of professional syndicates, in addition to Law No. 213 of 2017, which grants workers organized union and labor frameworks within institutions.

According to the latest official invitation issued by its Board of Directors to its members, the syndicate includes more than 10,000 journalists registered in the active members' list, while the same law requires that at least a quarter of this number or one hundred and fifty members, depending on the nature of the meeting, must be present for its general assembly to convene. Within this same legal framework, the Press and Media Regulation Law No. 180 of 2018 recognized online press websites as an acknowledged entity, and stipulated that the editor-in-chief of the site and its responsible editors must be registered in the Journalists' Syndicate, a provision that later became a fundamental reference for all parties in dispute over the desired form of organization.

The biggest spark came from within the union itself, when its healthcare and social welfare agent, Mohamed El-Garhy, submitted an official memorandum warning that any entity speaking on behalf of journalists or exercising the union's powers represents an infringement on the powers guaranteed by the constitution. However, the memorandum, which also included a demand to transfer the holders of executive positions, including Minister Rashwan, to a non-working list for the duration of their assignment based on the article regulating the condition of exclusivity in the union law, also turned into a subject of controversy after it was circulated in publications that interpreted it as a personal targeting, prompting El-Garhy later to clarify that his demand is limited to applying an existing legal text without exempting anyone in particular.

In the face of this escalation, the head of the journalists' union, Khaled El-Balshi, chose an interpretive path in an attempt to defuse the crisis, distinguishing between three concepts that are often confused in public discourse: owners' unions that institution owners have the right to establish, organizing workers through unions, and the institution as a common framework between them. He considered that the real danger does not lie in the existence of an entity for owners, but in any attempt to merge owners and workers into a single organization that could turn into a tool for imposing unified editorial policies or an unannounced monopoly on information. Instead of creating new frameworks, he called for activating the provisions of the 2018 law regarding insurance funds and the minimum wage that have not yet been fully implemented. The union then announced an open discussion session at its headquarters in early October to explore ways to expand union protection to include website journalists.

From within the digital platforms sector itself, the editor-in-chief of "July Platform," Khaled Salah, revealed a parallel movement gathering the founders of digital platforms, confirming his communication with the current and former union heads, Yahya Qalash, to involve them in formulating a balanced solution, denying that the anticipated entity seeks to compete with the union or that he occupies a leadership position in it.

While the division between supporters and skeptics continued, voices emerged trying to offer a middle ground away from the binary of rejection and support. Journalist Karim Gaber saw that the most suitable solution is to create a division for website editors within the union itself, not outside it, based on the text of the 2018 law that required the registration of responsible website editors in its records. Journalist Hamdi Rizk took a similar path, calling for an emergency meeting that includes the wise men of the profession, former union heads, and representatives of digital journalism, emphasizing that the distinction between print and electronic journalists has lost its meaning in an era where only the tools are changing, while the journalist's identity remains indivisible before the law.