Cairo October 9^th , 2010

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said , today , that after five days of dismissing Ibrahim Eissa  and after the clear change in the newspaper policy , it is now obvious that the allegations declared by the new owners of the paper about financial disputes with Eissa are untrue , especially that one of the owners said that the new board cannot  tolerate the bold editing line of Eissa.

The contradicting declarations of the CEO, el-Sayed  el-Badawy Shehata  and the executive director Redha Edward , during the past few days in addition to the pathetic image of Dostor ‘s last five issues which does not relate the least to the regular image when Eissa was editor , clearly expose the feeble allegations of financial and administrative disputes. The new owners declared raises in journalists’ pay , however , they knocked down the boldest newspaper  in Egypt in less than a month’s time as they dismissed Eissa and the main members editing staff.

On the other hand, Eissa was stopped from presenting the TVshow ,Baladna Bilmasry as an act in long chain of dismissals and limitations on the Egyptian media. A few days earlier, Amr Adib’s show was stopped. Writers and presenters  calling for reform were also controlled such as Alaa el-Aswani and Hamdi Kandil . Lastly, the sports show , Dhelal wa Adwaa, was stopped on the state owned Nile channel, as the presenter Alaa Sadek criticized the minister of interior, thus paving the way to a media free of government criticism.

Gamal Eid , ANHRI executive director , said, ” Controlling media is no news in Egypt . The news is that chairman of an opposition party would silence another opposition newspaper in this critical timing when all voices calling for democracy and reform in Egypt should rally before the forthcoming public and presidential elections”.

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