The Shura Council’s general committee announced the new members of the Supreme Press Council and the new chairmen of the board for the state-owned press institutions on Tuesday, in a set of new appointments by the Brotherhood-dominated upper house of Parliament.
Consequently, the new appointees included some figures belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, as well as some of the group sympathizers.
Among the appointees for chairmen of the board of the state-owned press institutions are: Shaker Abdel Fatah Gamal Eddin for Middle East News Agency, Mamdouh al-Wali for Al-Ahram, Ahmed Sameh for Akhbar al-Youm, Mostafa Ahmed Hodaib for Dar al-Tahrir, Yahya Zakariya Ghanim for Dar al-Helal, Mohamed Gamal Eddin for Rose al-Youssef, and Kamal Eddin Mahgoub for Dar al-Maaref.
Eddin, of Middle East News Agency, had been selected by the same body in August to be chief editor of the agency. At the time, the privately owned newspaper Al-Watan suggested that Eddin's family ties may have gotten him the top post. The paper reported that Eddin is the cousin of Shura Council member Gamal Heshmat, who belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Mamdouh al-Wali won his current position as head of the Journalists Syndicate in October 2011 with the support of the Muslim Brotherhood. Following his appointment, Wali said that he does not belong to the Brotherhood or any other Islamic movement. He thanked the Brotherhood for its support following the announcement of the results, but emphasized he would not be biased toward any Islamic movement.
In its new formation, the Supreme Press Council will be headed by the Shura Council Speaker Ahmed Fahmy, an FJP member. Wali will sit on the board along with the chief editors of the Wafd, Al-Ahram, Nour, and Freedom and Justice Party newspapers.
The council will also include Ibrahim Hegazy, a columnist at Al-Ahram and Osama al-Ghazaly Harb, the founder of the Democratic Front Party. University professors, legal experts, and public figures, including Nader Bakkar, spokesperson of the Nour Party, and Fathy Mohamed Shehab Eddin, an FJP member in Shura Council, will also sit on the council.
The Shura Council made a similar move last month when it replaced the chief editors of the state-owned newspapers. The appointments angered secular and liberal forces who saw it as a sign that the new Islamist administration was trying to manipulate power.
Different forces took to the streets during the last two weeks to protest what they called “Brotherhood-ization” of the state following the formation of the government, in which the FJP is significantly represented.
