The RNSAW has formed a ’Board of Advisors’ consisting of:
Dr. Mike Shelley, Coordinator of the Masters program of the Coptic Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo, and a member of the Presbyterian Church
Prof. Dr. Christiaan van Nispen s.j., Professor of Philosophy and Islam at the Catholic Seminary in Cairo, and a member of the Coptic Catholic Church
Dale Gavlak, MA, Correspondent for Vatican Radio and National Public Radio (USA), and a member of the Episcopal Church in Cairo,
Eng. Sawsan Gabra Ayoub Khalil, a member of the Coptic Orthodox Church,
Drs. Cornelis Hulsman, Correspondent for Reformatorisch Dagblad and Dutch Radio, and editor-in-chief of the RNSAW.
The above mentioned members do not represent their respective organizations in the editorial board but are members on the basis of their personal capabilities and expertise.
On April 5, 2000, the Editorial Board made the following decisions:
The Editorial Board of the RNSAW is responsible for:
1) Comments on articles published in Egyptian and foreign media and special reports,
2) Selection criteria for articles and criteria for summarizing articles,
3) Decisions on how to make the RNSAW attractive for a wider public.
Aim and purpose of the RNSAW:
The RNSAW is concerned about the reporting and documentation of religious developments in Egypt and the Arab world in the West. It believes that one-sided reports on Muslim-Christian relations tend to contribute to the polarization of Muslims and Christians in the Arab world and Egypt, and that Muslim-Christian relations only can be discussed well if they are well documented and presented in the wider context of society. The RNSAW also believes Christians only have a future in Egypt and the Arab world if peaceful relations with Muslims prevail and concerns are discussed on the basis of real facts and are not inflated or minimized. The RNSAW furthermore believes it is important for foreign readers to have an overview of the wide variation of opinions in Egyptian society and Arab world and to be aware that one-sided reporting abroad can have negative repercussions in Egypt and the Arab world.
The RNSAW does not advocate certain human rights or political opinions and believes this is only a role for local, indigenous organizations. However, the RNSAW provides detailed background information on Muslim-Christian relations to facilitate others working for harmonious and just relations.
This RNSAW tries to realize its aim through:
- A weekly news service providing readers with an overview of articles on religious issues from the printed media available in Egypt translated in full or summarized.
- News analysis and in-depth reports on religious issues which are discussed in the press.
- A database with the available material that has been translated thus far which can be used by any journalist or researcher who wants to know the background of certain developments or issues.
Role of the Editorial Board:
1) To provide the RNSAW with selection criteria for articles to be published in the RNSAW:
The current selection criteria are:
All articles on religious issues ranging from Islam, Islam and the West, Muslim-Christian relations, Christianity in Egypt, Bahai any other religious movement, freedom of expression issues (press censorship, censorship on books), to general background articles that can shed light on the Egyptian society in which the discussions on religious issues take place.
Comment: ’all articles’ means that all the available press in Egypt is scanned for relevant articles and all articles will be mentioned in one way or the other in the weekly overviews. All articles, however, does not mean all articles are translated in full. Many can be just summarized. Others are only mentioned in an editorial note below another article about the same subject.
2) Summarizing articles:
An article will be summarized or becomes part of a press overview if an article repeats more or less the same information or arguments as in previous articles or if the articles are extremely wordy. However, in order to give the user a complete overview of everything published on religious issues in the Egyptian media (that’s for the documentation side of the RNSAW), no articles are to be completely cut out. If articles are summarized an effort will be made to include two or three main quotes or one or more significant statements from the full text.
3) Designing a policy for providing editorial comments.
The current policy is that articles are given as they are but additional information can be added between square brackets in order to clarify a text for non-Egyptian readers, or footnotes or comments can be added at the end of a text.
The policy is also that footnotes or comments are made with help of the relevant specialists in the board of advisors. They are consulted in particular when a subject concerns their religion or denomination or specialty. In all cases an effort is made to get to the source of the information or if this is not possible an effort is made to get as close as possible to that source.
Comments are needed if an article carries factually wrong information, either by the author of the article or by someone who has been quoted in the article. Articles that are misleading in their presentation can be commented upon. Comments may also be needed to place a certain subject in the wider context of society. Finally news analysis could be made in relation to the way certain media reported about certain issues.
There could be two types of comments:
a) Comments carrying the name of ’editor of the RNSAW’ are supported by all members of the editorial board,
b) Comments carrying a name [such as Hulsman’s comment on Rose El-Youssef’s article on the Coptic Union (Week 08A)] are the responsibility of the writer but the fact that such a comment has been added to the RNSAW is the responsibility of the entire editorial board.
There can be different opinions about the same subject within the editorial board or the board of advisors. In that case both opinions are given. The RNSAW aims to give a wide spectrum of views on religious subjects and is open to different opinions.
Decisions on how to make the RNSAW attractive to a wider public.
The expenses of translators, editor and office expenses are much higher than the income from subscribers. More efforts need to be made to attract more subscribers.
Daily news alerts:
The current weekly RNSAW provides, because of its size and the unavoidable delay in presenting its material, mainly documentation which is excellent for subscribers such as the AUC and other research-focused institutions but it does not sufficiently address the needs of the press. In order to make the RNSAW more attractive for foreign media the proposal is made to employ one person to make daily press alerts for subscribers. This would be a daily overview of material relevant to the RNSAW that has been published in the Egyptian press which should be e-mailed or faxed the same day to subscribers. The overviews could be daily on Mondays to Fridays. On Mondays the overviews could be presented of Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Once a person starts doing this the editorial board will review his/her work and instruct him/her on how to improve the daily news overviews.
Information packets:
The income of the RNSAW currently only comes from subscribers and every now and then an article sold on an individual basis to the media. In the fast few months a few information packets have been made providing potential clients with a selection of articles published in the RNSAW on one particular subject only. These two packages were one on Al-Kosheh and one on the Personal Status Law. The editorial board decides what news packages should be made and which articles they should contain.
Creating a Website:
Development of a Website: Until now the RNSAW mainly received new subscribers by word of mouth. A Website would add the following:
- Creating a greater awareness worldwide of the work that the RNSAW is doing in the hope that this will result in extra subscribers;
- Creating a data base on the website which makes a selection of individual articles possible and makes them available for sale to non-subscribers based on a price per word.
The editorial board would follow-up on the development of the website and make sure that the designers indeed pay attention to all the needs of the RNSAW.
Who are the members of the editorial board?
Because the RNSAW is primarily focused on a non-Egyptian public it is important to have members who both know Egypt and the Western world well and who are therefore able to explain religious developments in Egypt to the Western public. Therefore priority is given to foreigners who have been living for a long time in Egypt and who are following religious developments in Egyptian society or Egyptians who have been living outside Egypt and/or have been exposed to contacts with a non-Egyptian public. The Editorial Board selects people who meet these criteria and asks them to join.
Relation of the Editorial Board to the Board of Advisors:
Members of the Board of Advisors are part and parcel of the RNSAW. Members of the Board of Advisors have the right to suggest articles for translation and to suggest comments. They need to be consulted by the editor-in-chief and/or editorial board if the subject under discussion concerns their particular area of competence and expertise. Important decisions including the formulation of aim and main policy should be put before the Board of Advisors. Members of the Editorial Board are also members of the Board of Advisors.
Communication between members of the Editorial Board:
- The Editorial Board will meet at least twice a year. Meetings will be convened if issues arise which need discussion in the Editorial Board.
- Twice yearly the editor-in-chief will present a progress report as to how the RNSAW is developing. In those meetings also decisions will be made as to how the RNSAW further develops.
- Day-to-day issues such as when and how to comment on articles can be decided upon through e-mail and telephone contact.
The presentation of this document was delayed because editor-in-chief Cornelis Hulsman suffered from lung embolism and a heart attack.
Cairo, October 26, 2000.
