A Qasr El-Nil misdemeanor court on Sunday postponed until March 22 the trial of nine Al Bawaba News journalists and two Journalists Syndicate board members accused of insulting and defaming the newspaper’s chairman, Abdelrahim Ali, to allow the defense to review the case file.
The defendants include syndicate board members Iman Ouf and Mahmoud Kamel.
The postponement came as 17 rights groups and a political party condemned, in a joint statement, the referral of the journalists for trial, calling it a “dangerous precedent” that turns a professional dispute over the minimum wage into a criminal case meant to intimidate them and evade legal obligations.
The signatories to the statement called for an immediate halt to all prosecutions linked to peaceful protest, swift payment of overdue wages, and implementation of the minimum wage without discrimination. They also urged investigators to complete inquiries into the incident in which journalists staging a sit-in at the newspaper’s offices were physically assaulted and to hold those responsible accountable, citing constitutional guarantees of press freedom and the right to assemble and organize in unions.
In December, Abdelrahim Ali and his daughter, Dalia, the editor-in-chief of Al Bawaba News, filed a complaint against the journalists who were holding a sit-in inside the newspaper’s headquarters, as well as the two syndicate board members, over their participation in a protest on the steps of the Journalists Syndicate demanding payment of overdue wages, enforcement of the labor law, and compliance with the minimum wage set by the president.
Samah Samir, a lawyer with the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights representing the journalists, told Al Manassa he asked at Sunday’s hearing to review the case papers, while the newspaper’s lawyer sought to compel the defendants to pay Abdelrahim Ali 100,000 Egyptian pounds ($2,100) in compensation for alleged damages.
Ouf said the Al Bawaba News management is trying to turn the case from a labor dispute into a political one to avoid its legal responsibilities.
She added that prosecutors had removed the “protesting without a permit” charge after their inquiries found that the Journalists Syndicate’s front steps are part of the syndicate premises, meaning events held there do not require a permit.
Responding to accusations of defamation, Ouf said the claim was “baseless,” arguing that the chants cited in the complaint focused on low wages, an issue now before the courts over the paper’s failure to apply the minimum wage. She said other chants were tied to the syndicate’s decision to strike Abdelrahim Ali from its rolls, and she called for his daughter Dalia Abdelrahim to be referred to a syndicate investigation.
Explaining her absence from Sunday’s session, Ouf described the case as a “side battle,” but said she plans to attend a hearing on Monday in the lawsuit seeking to force the newspaper to apply the minimum wage, calling it “the core case that must be taken seriously.”
One Al Bawaba journalist taking part in the sit-in at the syndicate said they would continue until they secured all their rights, describing the prosecutions as “an attempt to pressure us and break our resolve.”
He also scoffed at the compensation demand: “They want us to pay 100,000 pounds in compensation when they were paying us no more than 2,000 pounds a month. Does that make any sense?”
Journalists at Al Bawaba News announced an open-ended sit-in Nov. 17 to demand application of the minimum wage. Management rejected the demand, citing financial inability. The outlet later printed “the last issue” of its paper edition early last month, a day after it announced the company’s liquidation and the outlet’s closure.
The protesters said their demands go beyond the minimum wage. They said working conditions at the outlet’s headquarters fall below basic standards and that they work without health or social insurance, lack minimum rights to promotions, and have been denied promotions, bonuses, periodic raises, and legal profit-related provisions, including for some staff who have worked since 2012.
On Jan. 13, Al Bawaba journalists said they were forced to move their sit-in to the Journalists Syndicate after their protest inside the institution was violently broken up. The journalists confirmed the incident, while the editorial board denied it.
