An official from the Journalists' Syndicate was hospitalized Thursday after entering a fifth day of hunger strike staged to protest the layoff of his colleagues.
Karem Mahmoud, head of the syndicate’s legislations committee and chief editor of independent al-Tahrir newspaper, complained of severe abdominal pain and low blood pressure. Doctors concluded that his condition was the result of his strike before ordering him to be hospitalized.
Mahmoud told Al-Masry Al-Youm he began his strike last Sunday to protest “unjust” financial settlements offered by al-Tahrir’s owners to his colleagues who were dismissed after the board’s decision in August to halt the paper’s print edition citing financial hardships.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
