CAIRO — A leading Egyptian newspaper editor said Tuesday he had been sacked, in what observers say is a campaign to restrict media freedoms ahead of elections next month.
Ibrahim Eissa, editor-in-chief of the daily Al-Dustur and known for his satirical columns against the government, told press he was not given the exact reasons for the sacking.
But he said his dismissal came "hours after the publishers told me they didn't want me to run an article written by Mohamed ElBaradei."
The paper was recently bought by business tycoon Sayyed Badawi, who also heads the liberal Wafd party, and businessman Reda Edwar.
"There were phone calls between me and the owners. They wanted me to remove the article written by ElBaradei... I objected, they asked me to refrain from publishing it for a few days but then a few hours later I was informed of the decision," he told AFP.
Former UN nuclear watchdog chief ElBaradei has emerged as the prominent opposition figure since returning to Egypt in February, calling for constitutional amendments and political reforms.
He had written an article for Al-Dustur to mark the anniversary of the 1973 October war with Israel.
Eissa's sacking comes after an independent TV channel pulled the plug on one of his programmes citing pressure.
Another popular television programme "Cairo Today," hosted by Amr Adib on the Orbit satellite channel which is recorded in Egypt's state television building, was also cancelled. Both shows have been known to criticise the government.
The latest moves come as Egyptians are due to vote in parliamentary elections next month, ahead of a presidential vote next year.
President Hosni Mubarak, 82, has not yet announced whether he will seek a fifth term next year. It is also widely believed he is grooming his son Gamal, a senior ruling party leader, for the presidency.
"It's a way of putting pressure on those who are calling for free elections, or those calling for a boycott," political science professor Mustafa Kamel al-Sayyed told AFP.
"The regime is unstable and it wants to secure a smooth transition of power (to Gamal Mubarak), and so it cannot tolerate freedom of expression," novelist and columnist Alaa al-Aswany told AFP.
He said he has stopped writing columns in the independent daily al-Shorouk after learning that his critical articles had caused the paper problems.
"I know that the owner of the paper (Ibrahim Al-Moallem) had come under immense pressure from the authorities to tone down criticism against the regime. He was asked to stop publishing articles calling for change," Aswany said.
Journalists at Al-Dustur said on the paper's website they were staging a sit-in in support of their popular editor.
One reporter told AFP the staff "was shocked" by the decision to remove Eissa, particularly as the new owners had promised to keep the popular newspaper in its current form.
Wafd recently refused to join ElBaradei in his call to boycott upcoming elections, and said it would field a large number of candidates.
Eissa was sentenced to six months in prison in 2008 for writing about rumours of Mubarak's ill health, but the president later pardoned him.
