Al Jazeera’s The Listening Post feature on our side of the story about why Egypt Independent shut down. Just want to clarify that we weren’t censored by the government, it was internal politics from Al-Masry Al-Youm’s management.
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The death of Egypt Independent
It’s hard to remove myself and put perspective on what the loss of Egypt Independent, the country’s leading independent English-language voice, means today.
The newspaper I’ve been with for the past 2+ years is being shut down by owners and I’ve spent the past few hours uploading our final words to the website www.egyptindependent.com.
We were warned two months ago that Al-Masry Media Corp wanted to “kill the baby to save the mother”, meaning they would end their investment in Egypt Independent to “save” the Arabic site Al-Masry Al-Youm. This is the first time we heard that their commercial team, which is neither hired nor overseen by Egypt Independent, had done nothing to sell advertisements or subscriptions for us. With this and a lot of funny math going on in estimating just how much our operation cost, it was clear from the beginning the deck was stacked against us.
Despite the obvious ethical concerns of an editorial staff engaging in commercial activities — and concerns about the capacity of Al-Masry Al-Youm management for logic and mathematics — we decided to take on the financial operation ourselves. We cut our budget without layoffs, raised tens of thousands of Egyptian pounds, increased subscriptions to our weekly print edition and to our SMS service, and brought in interested investors all without compromising our integrity as journalists.
In April, a closure letter was delivered to our office. We had made “no serious effort,” according to management.
I guess they expected us to go quietly. Fearing a public campaign, they tried to persuade us we should thank Al-Masry Al-Youm for investing in us over the years and not burn bridges. Perhaps we could buy the Egypt Independent name and archive (a request we had already made many times) if only we played nice. And of course, some of us were generously being offered jobs with the company to operate a skeletal version of our newspaper with just 10 people.
After reviewing the content of our final print edition they also blocked it from going to press Tuesday night, citing technical difficulties and a miscommunication that the previous edition was supposed to be our last.
Our final stories and statements are here: http://www.egyptindependent.com/
As well as our managing editor Lina Attalah’s letter to readers: http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/final-issue-triumph-practice
And reporter Heba Afify’s story of the company’s management failures: http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/final-issue-how-poor-management-destroyed-leading-voice
You can see what our institution means to someone outside the staff by reading prominent blogger and revolutionary activist Alaa Abdel Fattah’s “obituary” for Egypt Independent: https://www.facebook.com/notes/alaa-abd-el-fattah/championing-the-cause-of-narrative-an-obituary-for-a-newspaper-that-cannot-be-al/101515595125134
On a personal note, I’ve obviously been proud to work with our team to create this publication. There has always been an open conversation about our vision and work to which everyone was invited to contribute and that too often is missing from newsrooms with strict hierarchies and decision-making structures.
After saying goodbye to readers and giving the explanation that we thought reflected the truth without being vindictive, we’re all aware our website could be shut down, or our salaries could be held at the end of the month. In the end, we decided collectively that putting our work out there was more important than worrying about a hypothetical retaliation.
We’re now taking a moment to breathe and then focusing on how our team will reincarnate and improve its voice in a truly “independent” way.
Syrian refugees, Chinese baby in washing machine, Slum fire
Before I head to Asia, where I hope to recover that blogging spirit and have some awesome travel stories to share, I’ll leave with you with a few of my favorite recent videos and stories.
A couple photojournalists and I recently went to an Egyptian city near the Suez Canal to interview Syrian refugees living there and find out what kind of treatment they’ve been given and how they decided to flee their homes: Syrian refugees find second home in Port Said
Apparently the washing machine is a favorite play place for Chinese children. Or maybe Chinese state TV just loves to cover the baby-in-washing-machine stories. A few days after I did this video Firefighters rescue hapless child trapped in washing machine for Reuters, we had another one of a little boy!
On a more serious note, tragedy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, as slum residents lose their shanties and belongings to a fire: Bangladesh fire leaves hundreds homeless
Link
Crisis Group analysis of Egypt
Crisis Group analysis of Egypt
Interesting analysis of situation in Egypt that covers most of the bases in a clear and very honest assessment.
Video
Crazy Reuters video
http://www.reuters.com/video/2013/01/15/stolen-train-crashes-into-residential-bu?videoId=240500279
It’s been awhile since I posted anything, but this video package I did at Reuters the other day really struck me. You’ll see what I mean
Foray into electro-pop
The newspaper recently sent me to do a video interview of Yasmine Hamdan and film her concert in Cairo. While I was looking forward to doing another video project and checking out her music, it was one of those rare assignments where you kind of feel like you’ve been thrown off the deep end and forgotten how to swim. I’m not an arts critic and until a week before the concert I had never heard of this artist. I’m also not familiar with electro-pop, which is a big part of her style of music. As a journalist I thrive on being thrown into assignments and learning about new stories and professions and people, but unlike most subjects, music isn’t something you can get a sense for just by doing background research. After listening to tracks from throughout her career and then seeing the concert and talking to her after, I decided not to presume to critique what I felt was a very cool and unique blend of musical styles and influences, but to give the readers a sense of her as a performer and an artist and to let the video speak mostly for itself.
Yasmine was super down to earth and gave all the journalists who were waiting for her after the concert ample time. She sat with my colleague and I for 20 minutes and even brushed off calls from her band and crew to wrap up the interview.
You can read the story here and the video is embedded in the middle of the article.
Paddling demons
Rowing is on hold now for Ramadan, but I recently spent a few hours at the boathouse with Mustafa Saeid, a 23-year-old kayaker who is now in London competing at the Olympic games. Becoming an Olympian is no doubt an incredible achievement, but for Mustafa it’s been a lonely journey. Kayaking is a little-known sport here in Egypt, despite the hundreds of rowers and paddlers who practice every morning on the Nile, and his qualification is even more impressive in light of the constant discouragement that he has faced in one form or another along the way. You can read the full story here.
Tahrir celebrates new president
Photos of Tahrir Square erupting after Mohamed Morsy is declared Egypt’s first democratically elected president. The euphoria is obvious, but what’s not seen here is the unhappiness of many who feel disenfranchised or disenchanted that they were left to choose between an Islamist candidate and one of Mubarak’s top officials, Ahmed Shafiq. Still others are worried about what Morsy and the Muslim Brotherhood have in store for religious minorities and the state.
Here’s a look at the other side from my Egypt Independent colleague Rana: Shafiq campaigners in disbelief, hysteria following election loss
Stupid democracy
Out for the early hours of the presidential runoff this morning to help a friend film for Canadian TV, I was expecting to see only a couple weary voters lined up at the polls.
Maybe I was just projecting, because when we arrived we saw queues of more than 100 waiting, some not so patiently. I say queues because the men and women are split into two lines, and then, at this particular Zamalek polling station, the women are split again because, as one poll worker told me, “last time it was too long and all the women started to fight with each other.”
There were also some senior citizens apparently looking to cut down their wait.
“We were having an issue because people say they’re old and want to jump the line, but they’re not actually that old and every time I tell someone that, I get in trouble,” said 26-year-old poll volunteer Omar Shawki. “Half of these people just came from the gym, and we know that because we go to the same gym and we see them there every morning.”
One sly man tried to casually walk into the polling station behind a group of four or five voters who had been given the go ahead. He was promptly called back, to which he responded “why?” with no shame.
I can understand. They’re tired. It’s hot. And why would security bother with orderly lines when everything else seems to be going to shit?
After a Supreme Court ruling Thursday that dissolved Parliament, the next president will take office with no legislature and no constitution but a series of military declarations outlining his power.
Even though the prospect of a stable, legitimate government seems to be slipping into the distant future, most voters waited patiently in line, many to cast their ballots for a candidate they’re not particularly thrilled about.
One woman we were interviewing, Abla Bahnasawy, was explaining why she’s choosing Ahmed Shafiq, the PM appointed during Mubarak’s final days in office as a last-ditch and completely meaningless cabinet reshuffle. Mostly it was the same rhetoric about his military background and ability to bring security that his backers have espoused throughout the campaign. Because clearly as we’ve seen so far, you have to be in bed with the military to keep the peace.
She turned to the other women in line, asking if they had anything to add, to which one said “I cannot add anything because I am against you.” Of course the latter proceeded to add a lot.
“I don’t like Morsy, but Shafiq is a killer,” she said.
“We don’t have any proof,” returned Bahnasawy.
To which the other woman replied, “Voting for Shafiq is stupid, stupid, stupid,” among many other things. She later refused to give her name because if Shafiq is elected “he could kill me.”
Trying to be gracious, Bahnasawy offered, “See, this is democracy, everyone is free to choose.”
Egypt’s presidential vote: Historic, but not all that happening
Photo by Andrew Raven
A run-off is all but inevitable in Egypt’s presidential poll, the first round of which ends today. But as the second day of voting wraps up, that is all that’s even close to certain.
Both international and local pundits lately have been predicting a tight two-way race between Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh, who has been billing himself as a centrist Islamist reformer ever since he left his Muslim brothers behind last year to chase presidential ambitions, and Amr Moussa, a Mubarak-era diplomat who has tried to highlight their differences and distance himself from his decades of service under the former president. The pollsters were put to shame this week when unofficial preliminary results from Egyptians abroad came in with Muslim Brotherhood back-up candidate Mohamed “Spare Tire” Morsy in first place. Perhaps we should have seen this coming given that independent polling was basically illegal under Mubarak and there’s no precedent for a real multi-candidate election, but most of us assumed the polls had some basis in reality.
Naturally, this refocused political discourse onto a favorite topic: complete Brotherhood domination. Thanks to the group’s well-oiled social/political machine, it’s party and alliance control the Parliament elected in late 2011/early 2012.
Unofficial exit polling and early results this evening also put Morsy ahead at home. He became the powerful group’s main hope when its primary candidate, the more charismatic Khairat al-Shater, was disqualified by the Presidential Elections Commission over a technicality along with several other candidates.
Realistically about five or six of the 11 candidates are in contention: Morsy, Abouel Fotouh, Moussa, Mubarak’s last PM Ahmed Shafiq, Nasserist Hamdeen Sabbahi and, the revolutionaries hope, liberal lawyer Khaled Ali. There are 13 on the ballot, but after voting slips were finalized two said they wanted to withdraw to support other candidates.
Widespread rule-breaking has been reported and a dizzying web of complaints filed by voters and candidates’ campaigns against other campaigns, but thus far nothing major. Most of the allegations involve political parties or campaign workers trying to sway voters outside polling stations despite a (widely ignored) blackout period on campaign activities that has been in effect since Monday. The same happened during parliamentary elections across Egypt.
A few scuffles between the camps at various polling stations have also been reported.
One of the most depressing stories of the day that we ran at Egypt Independent, for me at least, was about a wheelchair-bound disabled rights advocate who couldn’t get to his polling station, and then, facing the prospect of three flights of stairs at the local police station, also couldn’t file a complaint.
Meanwhile, Moussa is apparently becoming increasingly desperate, holding a press conference that he slid by the campaign gag order by turning it into a poll tour with reporters just to tell people to go vote. And then there’s his campaign’s bizarre Tweet that he’s waiting for former PM Ahmed Shafiq to pull out of the race in a magnanimous last-minute gesture to improve Moussa’s prospects. To which the Shafiq people justifiably responded: “It seems that Mr. Amr Moussa is suffering from electoral hallucinations.” (See our live election coverage here)
In a relatively uneventful two-day vote, well, at least compared to all the fights and beatings Egypt used to see, one of the biggest surprises is the low turnout. It’s fairly indicative that the best headline we could come up with this morning for our wrap-up was “First day of voting not without glitches.” Glitches — not pitfalls, not clashes, just little hiccups.
Most of us journos have been waxing poetic about the “first free and fair presidential election in Egypt since … (insert dramatic time reference here),” and how great and democratic a vote is when you don’t know the outcome a year or even a week in advance and any candidate could be the next president.
Now, we’re left with scintillating stories about how we saw a handful of voters waiting in line and they weren’t necessarily enthused about it either. (Except for those foreign media outlets reporting long queues of hundreds and passing this off as representative of the entire country.
During voting for the People’s Assembly (the lower house of Parliament) lines wrapped around the block, and by traditional election wisdom this vote should be bringing more people out; there are plenty of known and controversial candidates, a lot at stake, and don’t we keep reminding people that this is an historic day?
Egypt has more than 50 million eligible voters and the Presidential Elections Commission is reporting that about 40 percent have cast ballots. Some are boycotting, others may be disillusioned with continued unrest or what many see as the lack of change since last year’s revolution, but it’s hard to wrap my brain around why the other 60 percent stayed away from that purple ink.
