Al-Masry Al-Youm managing director apologizes for ‘inaccurate wording’

CAIRO – 30 March 2018: Managing Director of the Egyptian independent newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm Abdel Latif el-Menawy apologized for the “inaccurate wording” of the headline on the presidential election that prompted a lawyer to sue the paper over “insulting the state’s institutions.”

When asked about the paper’s decision to fire one of their journalists over the incident, Abdel Latif el-Menawy said that any person has the right to express his anger and bear the consequences of his decisions, in an interview on DMC channel Thursday. “I hope a state of relative calm proceeds as the state should not lose any of its constructive factors [referring to journalists].”

He urged media professionals to take a step and “launch a dialogue on social and political responsibility, and access of information during the next presidential term.”

In the main headline on the front page in the first Thursday edition, Al-Masry al-Youm wrote, “the state is amassing voters on final day of poll”. Lawyer Samir Sabry has filed a lawsuit before the general prosecution against the newspaper and its editor-in-chief Mohamed al-Sayed Saleh over its headline, accusing it of “insulting Egypt and the state’s institutions.”


Al-Masry al-Youm\s front page of the first edition on Thursday- Egypt Today

In the newspaper’s second edition, the main headline was changed into “Sisi sweeps election against Moussa due to preliminary results.”


Al-Masry al-Youm\s front page of the second edition on Thursday- Egypt Today

Egypt’s Attorney General Nabil Sadek launched an investigation with Egyptian independent newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm into the accusations.
According to the preliminary results, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi attained a landslide election victory against Al-Ghad Party candidate Moussa Moustafa Moussa.
Initial figures showed that 21,088,295 voted for Sisi in polling stations across Egypt, excluding several stations in Cairo and Giza; Moussa on the other hand gathered 682,797 votes.