Arab West Report Egyptian press summaries and media research for dialogue

The third Conference for Resisting Religious Discrimination, held by the Democratic al-Jabhah Party and entitled ‘al-I‘lām wa al-Muwātanah’ [Media and Citizenship], recommended the establishment of an independent, national council to control Egyptian media in regard to freedom of expression and condemnation of discrimination on the bases of religion, color, race and sex. The Conference also recommended the establishment of a civil observatory to monitor sectarian speeches and breaches of citizenship. Dr. Usāmah al-Ghazālī, president of al-Jabhah Party, confirmed the party’s support for the resistance and condemnation of any kind of religious discrimination. The participants stressed the subjectivity of the Egyptian press in dealing with different issues, especially sectarian events, and considered the conference a positive step in such a discriminative atmosphere. In another session of the conference, the subject of ‘journalists and professionalism’ was highlighted and some reporters commented on the difficulties they face when covering Coptic issues, particularly because the Church usually refuses to give them the desired information. In the third session, entitled ‘sectarian media and its danger on citizenship’, Rūbīr al-Fāris, a journalist, presented examples of Islamic magazines that have discriminative attitudes. The last session of the conference focused on formulating a media honor-charter to address principles of citizenship.