Al-Masry Al-Youm (AMAY) received official internal correspondence between some of Al-Ahram institution officials, revealing a disagreement between Ahmed al-Naggar, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Mohamed Abdelhadi Allam, the Editor-in-Chief.
The correspondence between them, reviewed by AMAY, sheds light on the reasons behind the reported halting of Tuesday's issue last night at the institution's print house.
The reason of the halt was reportedly an opinion article by the journalist Ahmed Abdel Tawab. The two were discussing whether or not to publish the article.
The crisis began when Naggar recommended that the daily edition of Ahram should no longer publish articles by the retired journalist Tawab. Naggar filed his recommendations on April 3 with Allam, the Editor-in-Chief, attached with the Tawab's resume.
Naggar recommended that publishing Tawab's articles should stop permanently. "He is not up to [the standard to] obtain the position of a columnist in Al-Ahram, which he harms.. some of his writings are not suitable for a newspaper that is as solid and respected as Al-Ahram," Naggar said.
Naggar addressed the editorial board, and the General Directorate of the print house, asking them to implement his recommendations as of April 10, which was Monday.
The editor-in-chief replied harshly to Naggar's recommendations. "I inform you that your decision is rejected, as it contradicts with the laws and regulations of the institution, and constitutes an attack on the powers and authorities of the editor-in-chief," Allam said.
"Assigning of the General Director of the print house to implement your decision sets a dangerous and bad precedent in the history of the profession of journalism. You introjected the General Director of the print house into a matter that he has nothing to do with," Allam said.
Allam declared his rejection of Naggar's decision, saying: "I inform you that I'm not implementing the decision, and that you will take all the responsibility; I would take legal action in the event of any manipulation of the editorial material."
The letter showed that Allam's response came five days after Naggar's recommendations, as shown in the timestamp for April 8, 2017.
The correspondence obtained by AMAY also showed that Ibrahim Al-Ghamri, Director General of the print house, sent a letter to the Director of Legal Affairs to inquire about the official entitled to give the printing permit.
In the end, Tuesday's issue of Al-Ahram at the stands this morning included the disputed article of Tawab, meaning that Naggar failed to implement his decision.
Meanwhile, during a talk show aired on the privately-owned satellite chanel Ten TV on Monday, MP Mostafa Bakry addressed President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, urging him to intervene in the printing of Al-Ahram daily, after it was hindered by the chairman. Naggar, according to Bakry, threatened to dismiss whoever gives orders for printing.
Moreover, Bakry called for arresting Naggar after he suspended the printing, saying: “This is an issue of national security!”
Commenting on Bakry's remarks, Naggar said, “I don’t care”; adding, in comments to AMAY, "the [Tuesday] edition is actually on newsstands."
