NEA complains Al-Masry Al-Youm to SCMR over election coverage

CAIRO – 1 April 2018: Egypt’s National Election Authority (NEA) submitted an official complaint to the Supreme Council for Media Regulation (SCMR) on Saturday against the independent Egyptian newspaper Al- Masry Al-Youm over its election coverage.

The NEA demanded an investigation into the newspaper’s election coverage, complaining that its coverage implied that the state is interfering in the voting process.

The complaint added that Al-Masry Al-Youm published a headline on its front page Thursday claiming that the state is amassing citizens to participate in the voting process.

The published piece of news is considered an insult against the NEA and the Egyptian people, which must be dealt with according to the law and the Constitution, the NEA stated in the complaint.

Youm Abdel Latif el-Menawy, managing director of Al-Masry Al-Youm, apologized earlier on Friday for the “inaccurate wording” of the headline.

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

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.”