text:
The Republic of Maspero
ERTU – The Egyptian Radio and Television Union from a reform perspective
Prepared by
Amer El-Wekeel
This is The Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU) building, Maspero
The Republic of Maspero, where awareness is formed, where information, news and opinions are presented, the breeding ground of most media professionals we see in private channels, whether in Egypt or the Arab region.
Where picture and sound come out to reach the eyes and ears of the public,
where awareness is either being raised or being falsified!
Whoever gains control over Maspero controls a huge segment of the public, controls the minds and consciousness of a huge segment of the population.
No one is satisfied with Maspero, be it the employees, the state or the citizens.
However, they are not equal; the state has the decision making, the employees implement those decisions and orientations, and the citizens are the ones who have the right and the ones who fund the costs of administration, production and management of such an important facility, and they should have been the beneficiaries, but they became the victims.
This is an initiative, a vision, and an effort to reform Maspero by one of the sons of Maspero. We present it, may it be useful to those who run the country's affairs, and may it be useful in the debate taking place now, so that the Republic of Maspero would once more belong to the citizens, not as a tool to control, but as a source of knowledge, professional media and credibility in Egypt.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)
Author's preface
Over several decades, the term "state media" meant the kind of media which represents the will of all people, but in reality this is a distorted definition, as media practices have proven that this type only reflects part of the state, namely the ruling authority, and does not speak on behalf of all the people, so a more adequate and accurate term for this type of media would be "authority media." ERTU or "Maspero" is considered an accurate representation of the difference between the so-called authority media and state media in which the public is supposed to be the master and becomes the focus of that media, this is why most conferences about media after the January 25 Revolution sought to correct this erroneous concept and recommended distinguishing between both types and the implementation of the people's media in Egypt, which is known in professional circles as the "public service media," where people are the source of authority and all governments and institutions are at its service, as stipulated in the Egyptian Constitution of January 2014, which clearly states in Article 4 "Sovereignty belongs only to the people, who shall exercise and protect it. The people are the source of powers, and safeguard their national unity that is based on the principles of equality, justice and equal opportunities among all citizens, as stated in the Constitution. "
* Maspero is still the hope for Egyptian media, which can provide a media service that takes society and the profession as a whole to the next level, through presenting public service media that achieves what we call the three Es. "Enlightenment – Education – Entertainment" because Maspero belongs to the people, the taxpayers, not a single member of any government funds it from his own money, therefore the media in Maspero must go in one direction, that is to "produce for the people, by the funds of the people and under the control of the people." While on the other hand, private media remains a tool in the hands of whoever has the capital, as a private commercial media which represents the views of its owner.
This study provides an effort and a diagnosis of Maspero's condition in its administrative form, as well as the content it provides as a state-owned media, funded by the people, speaking on behalf of the authority, and how it can be reformed to become a public service media that helps to achieve a democratic society, through spreading culture and raising the awareness of Egyptians, and always upholds the citizen's right to be informed.
Amer El-Wekeel
Part I
Maspero: Background
1- Who is "Maspero", where does the name come from?
Maspero is the old name of the district and the street where the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU) building is located. The new name of the street "Corniche El Nile" didn't however replace the old one, as people are still using the name "Maspero" till today.
The name goes back to the French Egyptologist "Gaston Camille Maspero ", the archaeologist who studied in Paris and became professor of Egyptology there himself, and then came to Egypt in 1880 when he served as director of Boulaq Museum. Born in 1846 in Paris, Maspero had spent six years in Egypt before he returned back to his country in 1886. After a period in Paris (1886–1899), he returned to Egypt, where he had lived for 15 years. He was appointed as the head of the Egyptian Museum, director general of excavations and antiquities for the Egyptian government, and the executive director of the Egyptian Archaeology Authority or the Antiquities Service. He was also the head of an archaeological mission that grew into the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology.
Maspero wrote a lot about Egypt's monuments and heritage such as writings in ancient Egyptian mythology and ancient Egyptian history besides some studies in Egyptology. He was trying to maintain Egypt's own archaeological heritage. In 1912, he introduced an anti-looting law which banned archaeological excavations except by scientific missions upon an approval from the government. Maspero died in 1916 two years after he returned to his country. [1]
2– Maspero : Early development & first broadcast
* Egypt started its first national radio broadcast station on 31 May 1934 by the voice of radio presenter Ahmed Salem announcing his most famous commencement "This is Cairo".
*The first television broadcast was on July 21, 1960 under the authority of the Ministry of National Guidance.
* In 1966, President Gamal Abdel Nasser issued three resolutions to regulate Radio, TV and Broadcast Engineering making Radio and TV two separated sectors.
* On 13 August 1970, the National Guidance Ministry was replaced by the Ministry of Information (MoI) upon a decision by President Mohamed Anwar Sadat.
*In 1971, President Sadat issued Decree No. 1 to regulate- what was known at that time as- the Arab Radio and Television Union.
* The word "structure" was used for the first time while introducing Law No. 13 of 1979 issued by President Sadat to restructure the Radio & Television Union, however it entailed changes in the administrative hierarchy only. [2]
* After January 2011 Revolution, the Ministry of Information was abolished upon a decision by the then- Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, but the decision was revoked under the military junta or the rule of the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF), which appointed Osama Haikal as the Minister of Information under Essam Sharaf's government. [3]
The Ministry of Information was canceled for the second time upon a decree issued Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab on 16 June 2014 . However, the ministry was just nominally discarded as the Minister of Information's duties continue to exist, but they are being carried out by the Prime Minister. [4]
3- Administrative structure and proportion of labor in Maspero:
** Despite the fact that Maspero's crisis lies in the media content presented to the public, many figures about Maspero administrative structure show that this 'content' issue is merely one symptom of the main problem. Maspero has already get rid of many of the large number of employees working there through a resolution issued in November 2011 after January Revolution to halt the appointment of people at ERTU, which resulted in a decrease in the number of labor. As shown in the following figures, the number of employees has declined in less than five years; from 43,000 in 2011 to 33,000 workers in 2016.
First: The Minister of Information
Since the position of the minister of information was abolished, the Prime Minister has been the Acting Minister of Information carrying out his duties, which are: overseeing the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU) and its implementation of the national objectives and services ensuring their connection with the high policy, national goals, social peace, national unity and the state media plan.[5]
Second: The Board of Trustees & its members
The Board of Trustees is responsible for setting the public policies which regulate ERTU's work, approving the main plans for its implementation, as well as the monitoring and evaluation of the performance of ERTU sectors to ensure that they are carrying out their duties, and taking the necessary decisions to achieve the union's objectives. [6]
On 24 April 2016, Prime Minister Sheirf Ismail issued a decision appointing Safaa Hegazy as the new head of ERTU and Chairperson of its board of trustees. The decision also entails re-constructing/ re-shaping of the ERTU Board of Trustees, as follows:
Board members
Head of of the State Information Service, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, head of the Central Agency for Organization and Administration, executive director of the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority, Secretary General of the National Council for Women, Secretary General of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Culture, head of ERTU main sectors, Lobna Mohamed Helal, an economist, media worker Osama Kamal, former Dean of the Faculty of Mass Communication Laila Abdel-Meguid, media worker Hamdy Al-Kouniesy, Journalist Salah Montaser, acotr Mohamed Sobhi, Hussein Yousri Mohamed Amin, a Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at the American University in Cairo (AUC), and media expert Mohammed Abdel-Metaal Salem Ashour.[7]
Third: Managing Directors/ Council Members
This council is comprised of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees along with the members assigned to run ERTU's main sectors and a number of departments heads. It is in charge of implementing the decisions and polices adopted by the Board of Trustees as well as coordinating ERTU's plans, programs and activities.[8]
4- Maspero's sectors
At the beginning, the work system in Maspero was regulated into four sectors (Television, Radio, Radio Engineering and Finance). However, after the expanding of the union, it has become involve 12 sectors, including media and assisting sectors[9] , as follows:
1) TV Sector: includes the Egyptian Satellite Channel (ESC), satellite channel broadcasting to America, Channel 1, and Channel 2. (Health And Beauty Channel has become affiliated with the Ministry of Health since 2014, according to former ERTU head Essam Al-Amir)
2) The Radio Sector: including 9 broadcasting networks; El Bernameg Al Aam (The General Program)- Al-Quran Al-Karim (Holy Quran)- Sowt Al-Arab (Arabs Voice)- Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (Middle East)- The Cultural Program- Al-Shabab Wal Ryiada (Youth and Sport)- Directing stations- Regional stations- Nile Radio Network
3) Regional Channels Sector: includes channels that provide special and local media service for Egypt's governorates; Cairo Channel (formerly Channel 3)- Alexandria Channel (formerly Channel 5)- Delta Channel (formerly Channel 6)- Upper Egypt Channel (formerly Channel 7)- Thebes Channel (formerly Channel 8).
4) Specialized Channels Sector: includes 8 channels; Nile Drama TV, Nile Life TV, Nile Comedy TV, Nile Cinema TV, Nile Sport TV, Nile Family TV, Nile Cultural TV, and Nile Educational TV.
5) News Sector: includes channels that are concerned with the news and political affairs: Nile News TV that broadcasts in both English and French along with Sowt Al-Shaab (Voice of the People) TV. The sector is also running Egypt Radio station and (Akhabr Masr) Egypt News website, in addition to providing news services at Channel 1, 2 and ESC.
Assisting Sectors :
6) Broadcast Engineering Sector – 7) Production Sector- 8) ERTU Presidency/ Head Sector- 9) General Secretariat Sector – 10) Economic Sector 11) Security Sector – 12) ERTU Magazine Sector.
5- According to some private sources, the number of employees at ERTU's various sectors till 30/06/2015
Acting workers
Temporary workers
ERTU Head
General Secretariat
Economic Sector
Broadcast Engineering Sector
Radio Sector
TV Sector
Production Sector
News Sector
Specialized Channels Sector
Regional Channels Sector
Security Sector
ERTU Magazine
Total number of employees = 35461
Number of media professionals in Maspero till 30-6-2016, based on some private sources
Media Professionals
Senior administration
Journalists at ERTU magazine
Programs' anchors and writers
Artistic jobs
Directors and Editors
Photography and lightening
Media jobs
6- Maspero's financial situation.[10]
First: debts
– The investment bank's debt amountsto 21 billion EGP, 8 billion allocated to the establishment of the Media Production City and Nilesat Company, and about 300 million EGP was allocated to the development of studios.
-During 2015-2016, ERTU's deficit totals 4 billion EGP; 2.5 billion from the debt's interest rate and the rest from the employees' wages that amount to 2.6 billion pounds per year.
– Maspero's profits from its share in Media Production City and Nilestat companies alongside the stake it holds in CNE Company, : 300 million pounds in 2015- 2016.
– Maspero's profits from radio ads amounts to 300 million EGP from 2015 to 2016.
– Maspero's profits from Nile Sport TV ads amounts to 75 million EGP from 2015 to 2016.
– Maspero's profits from marketing and production of TV drama series amounts to 150 million EGP from 2015 to 2016.
7- Maspero companies
The Shareholding pattern of Maspero is somehow peculiar. Pursuant to the law, the successive governments have allocated all of the lands and building, including the Maspero facility, to ERTU, but these lands are not totally owned by the union. In other words and as stressed by Essam Al-Amir, former ERTU head, ERTU only runs these state-owned properties in accordance with the law.
1- Sono Cairo Co. for Audio and Video (Sawt al-Qahira) is completely owned by ERTU. It has branches and shops in very important places in Cairo and Egypt's different provinces. The company was previously owned by actor Mohamed Fawzy, but it was nationalized in Nasser's era and became affiliated with Maspero.
2- Maspero owns a 42 % stakes in Media Production City Company.
3- Maspero holds a 96 % stakes in Nilesat the Egyptian company for satellites.
4- Maspero also owns Nile Radio Company, a new company that runs FM, Nagham, Mega and Hits radio stations.
What is the administrative laxity?
** Many are talking about the problem of the administrative laxity in Maspero, which can be explained when we look at the study paper prepared about the structure of senior positions in ERTU's Engineering Sector. We can see that the head of the sector has 9 representatives, which doesn't make sense, to the extent that those who re-introduced these posts from the organization and management department themselves have suggested canceling these posts because they are unnecessary. It's also worth to mention that this sector only includes a third of the number of employees in Maspero, making the number of employees- as we mentioned earlier- amounts to 10,000 workers at least.
8- Senior positions in Radio Engineering
The following chart explains the forms and structure of leading positions in Maspero, according to its organization and management department.
(Source – organization and management department – Maspero)
Section II
The Problem of media content in Maspero
This section deals with some examples of media practices in Maspero. These examples were mentioned in two the books issued by "Media Workers Observers" movement during 2014-2015. The movement was established in January 2014 by a group of journalists and media workers to monitor print media, radio and TV with both its private and official sectors:-
– Radio Masr (Egypt's Radio):
On November 15 at 9 PM, there was a program hosting journalist Dr. Mohamed Bassiouni and its host, Sara, was saying "Here we are saying Daash (ISIS) is made in USA". Her fellow anchorman then replied "No Sara, we are not saying so", but she repeated her words "No we are, and this is based on what many Islamist movements are saying". Bassiouni then interrupted their speech: "Daash is the one who arranged the mass exodus to Europe so that terrorism would be penetrating Europe. Daash considers Erdogan as the Islamic Caliph (ruler), and almost all European countries have imported oil from Daash which owns 60% of Iraq's oil. "
- The anchorwoman launched what can be considered as a piece of information stating that Daash is made in USA, and in spite of her colleague's attempts to advise her, she insisted on ignoring the accuracy of the information. When the host said that Daash made a mass migration to Europe launching some pieces of information as he might consider, neither did the anchorman nor the anchorwoman interrupt him to ask him about the source of this information and its documentation, which made the whole program as if it is directed or targeted against immigrants alongside Turkey, not an enlightenment radio programme that gives its listeners documented pieces of information.
– Nile News:
On 19 August 2015, "Hamzet Wasl" program, aired on Nile News radio station, was addressing the new counter-terrorism law and hosting Asmaa Al-Gioushy, a professor at Al-Mansoura University, and Dr. Ashraf Saber who are all pro the law. The program also aired a report that was conducted with a number of citizens, all of them are supporting the law as well.
- The program turned to be a propaganda promotional show to gain publicity for the anti-terrorism law. It was biased towards the law and demonstrated a complete lack of objectivity as well as impartiality, as it made all people agree on one thing which is impossible to happen, resulting in damaging the credibility of the viewer. The fairness of the program was also absent because it didn't interview any one whose opinion is opposing the anti-terror law although there are many great writers and unions that announced their rejection of the law.
– Egyptian Satellite Channel (ESC)
On 8 February 2015, TV presenter Hanaa Essam was talking with her guest, who we haven't get to know his name, about the killing of 21 of Al-Zamalek Sporting Club's young fans. The guest said "Does any one who died on the road become a martyr? We need to respect the law because as long as we are respecting it we are not going to die". The presenter commented on these words by asserting "Yes, I agree with you".
- The guest justified the murdering of Al-Zamalek young fans by saying that "they had broken the law". By her part, the presenter didn't carry out her duty to stop him from saying so, rather, she made a bigger mistake agreeing and confirming what the guest said. She didn't say that those young men were holding tickets for the match, and even if they weren't, they shouldn't be punished by getting killed. Also, the anchorwoman didn't host any representative for youth, which led to the total absence of accuracy and objectivity. Media, instead, has to play its role in warning against the disaster of wasting life which he had justified.
– Channel 1:
On 2 February 2015, 9 PM News Bulletin broadcasted a report that uses the sentence "the Prosecution's investigations revealed that". Under this sentence, he gave pieces of information about Mohamed Morsi's espionage case stating that the he committed crimes of so and so, then he made a phone interview with Major General Sameh Seif El Yazal, who asserted that defendant, Morsi, is a traitor who sold serious information about his country.
- What happened in the bulletin contradicts the media rules in dealing with the ongoing cases. It is not permissible to disclose the course of investigations into an ongoing case because it will affect the course of justice. Also, having a guest who affirms the conviction of a suspect made the bulletin lack the most important rules of media work which is the premise that defendant has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty, this is in addition to the rule of fairness, as it didn't provide the defendant or his lawyer the right of reply. It only presented one party of the case, which the party that convicts the defendant.
– Radio Masr (Egypt's Radio):
On 26 May 2014, Radio Masr (Egypt Radio) channel received a phone interview from Al-Fayoum reporter speaking about Egypt's 2014 presidential elections. The reporter said voter turnout is very high. He first reported that the number of the polling station votes is nearly 9,000 and that the number of voters who cast their ballots is 1200. He then concluded his report predicting a higher turnout the next day and saying that the voter turnout is mediocre due to the high temperatures. The broadcaster then said that the turnout percent ranges between 30 and 40 and that it is expected to reach 80 the next day.
- The matter went further from the absence of accuracy to the deliberate disinformation. The program shows the reporter's clear contradiction, as he first said that the turnout is high then he returned to say that it is low due to high temperatures, which is ludicrous. What worsened the situation is the analysis of the figures made by both the reporter and broadcaster arguing that 1200 persons out of 9000 is a large number that is estimated at 40% whereas the real percent doesn't exceed 13. This is in addition to the complete absence of objectivity when the broadcaster expected the turnout would increase 80% on the second day of voting.
– Egyptian Satellite Channel (ESC)
On 10 January 2014, "Hot Files" program was hosting researcher Amr Ammar, who argued that there is an international conspiracy against Egypt, led by the National Association for Change (NAC) alongside Kefaya and April 6 Movements, which he accused them all of treason. He also mentioned the name of Mohamed El-Baradei more than once accusing him of betrayal as well, claiming that he had called for Baha'i assemblies and the dismantling of the Egyptian army. The broadcaster, Ayten Al-Mogi, replied "this means that everyone will be holding weapons and the situation would turn into a civil war. Dr. Amr Hamzawy, who was also hosted in the episode, said that he is calling for Jewish- Muslim marriages (that a Muslim man can marry a Jewish woman).
- The episode lacks the mere principles of accuracy and fairness, and turned into a platform to discredit and smear people who were absent in it without giving them the right of reply. The anchorwoman didn't also interfere to prevent her guests from directing charges against people, including the former Vice President Mohamed El-Baradei, turning the media to be deviated from its genuine goal and message.
Through these examples of media practices, we can realize the seriousness of the crisis faced by Maspero as they show how Maspero is loosing its credibility in order to gain the ruling power's satisfaction. Media objectives have been diverged from the professional objective media that provides public service for people and helps supporting the democratic society and enlightening citizens. Media can be considered as a key part of the educational system, which would either lead to the progress and prosperity of the society or to its backwardness among nations.
Section III
Maspero: Problem and Solution
1- Political will
Short story
In 1994, after the end of the apartheid-era in South Africa and at the outset of the media reform stage, German media expert Hendrik Boucek and the South Africa's Ministry of Information nominee engaged in a dialogue..
Mr. Hendrik Boucek, a German media professional, met with the proposed candidate for the Ministry of Information in South Africa, and asked him "Do you really want to turn media be serving the democratic society?
The candidate replied.. "Yes we do. "
Boucek replied: "Then there should not be a ministry of information because it will try to serve the government not the people. Rather, we could establish independent bodies to run media in South Africa and contribute to the creation of a civil society. "
The candidate then told him, "You have to contact " the old man"- referring to (Nelson Mandela) who was elected as the president of South Africa in 1994. The candidate told Mandela: "The German expert says that in order to establish a democratic society, there shouldn't be a ministry for media. "
To which Mandela replied: "Then you will no longer be a candidate for the Ministry of Information and immediately began to carry out with him the procedures of establishing the independent media bodies. Start to establish a media entity for South Africa".[11]
2- The Vision of ERTU former head Essam Al-Amir
The following are some certain points made during an exclusive interview with the former head of Radio and Television Union (ERTU) Essam Al-Amir, who ran ERTU during the period from 5 August 2013 to 23 April 2016 when he left his post after spending 922 days heading Maspero. The interview was conducted with him in regard with this study. The following are some certain points made during an exclusive interview with the former head of Radio and Television Union (ERTU) Essam Al-Amir, who ran ERTU during the period from 5 August 2013 to 23 April 2016 when he left his post after spending 922 days heading Maspero. The interview was conducted with him in regard with this study.
Al-Amir said :
- I was the acting Minister of Information, just nominally, but decisions were only made by the two consecutive Prime Ministers Ibrahim Mahlab and Sherif Ismail. Al-Amir. The following is quoted from him:
- The practical solution for Maspero is to provide public service media to express the people, however, it should be financially independent so that no one can control it. This could be achieved through administrative and financial reforms, and we should start with the financial one, which is based in three pillars- to be pointed out below- but they are concluded in getting rid of the burden of debt and the restrictions imposed by the investment bank that takes over all Maspero profits. The total debt was amounted to 21 billion pounds with annual interest rate of up to 2.5 billion pounds.
The financial and administrative reform:
1- The first pillar.. Maspero has more than 160 stated-allocated pieces of land, including 22 pieces that are not needed. We asked the government to give these lands to us in order to sell them to the Investment Bank, which is also owned by the state. The State Lands Authority approved our demand and, consequently, said the lands worth about 4.5 billion pounds. The final decision, however, shall be made upon a law issued by the Parliament, which hasn't happened till now.
2- The second pillar.. After converting the broadcasting service from the old geometrical system, the so-called "analogue", to the "digital" system, ERTU has had larger access to terrestrial broadcasting frequencies, so we decided to sell this set of frequencies. A committee with representatives of both the State and Maspero was then established to value it at 12 billion pounds, as an estimate.
3- The third pillar.. There is a committee to resolve the financial disagreements among government's institutions with an allocation of two trillion pounds. This committee provides a debt reduction value for Maspero by recommending that the Ministry of Finance incurs 7.6 billion pounds on condition of seriousness in paying the debt off, which applies to Maspero. Implementing the first and second pillars, Maspero would be allocating 16 billion and 500 million, over 75% of the value of the investment bank, and as a result the remainder of the debt, worth less than 7 billion pounds, would be lifted terminating the whole debt that is hampering Maspero, to start achieving its self-sufficiency and independence. "
Explaining the financial solution, Essam Al-Amir further said: "We began to establish media investment companies, first of them was "Radio Nile", with the development of the provided service that results in stations "Mega FM- Nagham Hits- Shaaby FM", in addition to improving the performance of "Radio Masr (Egypt Radio) and Izaa Al-Shaba Wal Riyada (Radio Youth and Sports). This led Maspero to make profit of 300 million pounds in 2015 (from the radio only), but as we said before, the investment bank takes all of these profits to meet the required debt payments.
My plan is to establish Nile TV company that consists of "Nile Sports – Nile Cinema – Nile Drama – Nile Comedy", and that a subsidiary company-named the Nile Company for the Production of Drama that has a capital of 300 million pounds we were aiming to allocate from the profits- would be producing new drama works. Maspero ceased production because it doesn't own except 25 million pound by which we were buying the dramatic works. It's worth to mention that private production companies were selling us works at discounted prices in recognition of Maspero and its role. Also, we were able to pay off the debts of these companies that were amounted to 160 million pounds that had been accumulated after the January 25 revolution, which made producers more welcoming to give Maspero works at lower price.
By implementing this plan, ERTU and the decisions made by its board of trustees can be financially independent, especially that we are paying the state an amount of 1.2 billion pounds, as estimated by a government committee, in return for the service it provides for its institutions, a matter that no one mentions. They only speak about that the state is paying salaries worth 2.2 billion pounds annually. In return for services known by many as "covering of conferences, awareness campaigns like of poliomyelitis, covering speeches of the head of the state and president of the republic and many other incidents.
Al-Amir concludes his vision for financial reform by stating the aforementioned points. He then starts to talk about his plan of reform, asserting "Maspero crisis is summarized by the following points; first: the increasing number of employees, particularly administrators. Nevertheless, when suspending the recruitment of people there, the number reached 34,000 staff in April 2014. The second point is the laxity of the administrative department as there are many unnecessary positions, departments and financial degrees that may also hinder the work proceedings.
* The percentage of the workers' number increase is based on time. About 1500 workers are taking retirement every year, and throughout 4 years, the number of retirees is amounted to 3000 annually. The largest proportion of appointment started at the eighties, and thus the number of Maspero workers may reach to less than 15,000 by 2022.
* As for the administrative reform, Maspero has to return to its origins; the four sectors (Radio sector- TV sector- Technical sector- Investment sector), which are the economic powers we talked about in the financial reform section, and maybe we will resort to a number of experts and specialists in the financial and banking issued form outside Maspero to assist us in this section.
* Regarding the merging of channels, we only need one regional channel so that all regional channels would be integrated with each other in five minutes when the number of employees starts to shrink, on case that the governorates would alternately be in charge of transmission hours, meaning that Al-Delta channel, for example, takes two or three hours of broadcasting and so does Alexandria, and so on until the service would be upgraded.
* Maspero only needs seven channels that are specialized in providing the public service, including a regional news channel in Arabic and another one in English, alongside a high-profile independent editorial board. A number of institutions and banks would be then airing their ads in this channel as part of the publicity campaigns dedicated to these institutions.
* Q: Why doesn't the government care about Maspero, so that it could provide a public service media to the people, although it is a key factor to enlighten them?
*A: Media is like education, but of course education is more important. The Constitution provides for raising the budget of education and giving it more attention, so did the government do so?
The answer is no.. Similarly, there are some private channels that toe the government's line, are trying to serve the regime's interests, and want to provide all media services away form Maspero, which makes the government think and ask themselves why we would spend money on Maspero as long as there are other media entities that serve our own benefits.
- When we asked Essam Al-Amir "what prevented you from achieving this vision?", he said: " I have attended dozens of meetings with the government. They always welcome my suggestions, believe in what I say, and give me promises to carry out my plans, but on the other hand they keep delaying the matter. And as I said earlier, I was acting as the Minister only when carrying out duties or dealing with problems. The final decision was made by the Prime Minister himself. I wasn't even able to mover or promote one under Undersecretary of the Ministry's rank except upon a signature from the Prime Minister.
3- Public service media rather than the government media
The European Broadcasting Union gives a simple definition for public service media:
"It is made for people, funded by people and controlled by people".
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) further explains the definition of public service media, or public service broadcasting:
"Public broadcasting is defined as a meeting place where all citizens are welcome and considered equals. It is an information and education tool,accessible to all and meant for all, whatever their social or economic status. Its mandate is not restricted to information and cultural development— public broadcasting must also appeal to the imagination, and entertain. But it does so with a concern for quality that distinguishes it from commercial broadcasting."
Public service media objectives:
1- Expanding information and ideas by the multiple segments of society
2- Providing news and covering ongoing incidents without being influenced by the political or economic movements or any special interests, so that the coverage would be comprehensive, fair and balanced through an independent editorial policy.
3- Contributes to the economic, social and cultural development of the society by providing democratic discussion forums on how to face challenges.
4- Working on making those in power to take his/ her responsibilities in all society sectors
5- Help and inspire citizens, especially poor and marginalized people, in their attempts to improve their living conditions.
6- Providing various and genuine programs for all concerns that cover the broad sectors of society, in addition to the minority groups regardless of their religious, political and cultural beliefs, sex or gender.
7- Public service media reflects all public opinion cases' views covering, as much as possible, stances of all the social, political, philosophical, religious, scientific and artistic movements, etc..
8- Reinforcing the principles of freedom of thought and expression as well as freedom of communication by enabling all citizens- regardless of their social or economic condition- to freely voice their opinion through radio and media channels.
9- Promoting and developing the local content by dedicating the minimum quota of media to all citizens.
10- Activating and supporting the broadcasting signal so that it would be covering everywhere in the state. .[12]
Most important conditions for achieving public service media
1- State's executive bodies shouldn't play any role in the public service media affairs
2- Public service media shouldn't be owned by the state, for it is an independent entity under the rule of law
3- The Parliament plays a major role in the selection and the appointment of the media service's board members
4- Civil society and the people in general should participate in the process of selecting and designating the board members. Their participation should be massive and effective, and also be stipulated in law
5- State officials, political parties and businessmen should be excluded from the membership of the broadcasting services' board
6- Some of the broadcasting services are only responsible before the public and people. They cannot be held accountable before any other institutions. There are some others which hold responsibility before the Parliament. In Europe, there isn't any broadcasting service that can be questioned before the Cabinet or any minister.
Section IV: International Experience in public service media
أ- South Africa's case
After the end of the apartheid policy, South Africa sought to establish a media model that helps consolidating the principles of democracy. It demanded the assistance of some European experts, including German expert Hendrik Boucek, whom we will share his experience about the democratic transition during the interim period led by Nelson Mandela.
* The board members of the broadcasting authority in South Africa, named the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), are being selected under a transparent election where a parliamentary committee would be responsible for the media policy. The committee announces hiring people for positions at IBA's directing council. Candidates then will be shortlisted and called for public open interviews. Pursuant to the law regulating IBA that was passed in 1999, proposed council members should be appearing before the people of the South Africa in public interviews. The final committee then submit the shortlist to the Parliament for approval and then to the head of the state to issue appointment letters.
However, after several years, a majority party started to take control of the Parliament in South Africa, until it occupied the two-thirds of the Parliament's seats, promoting it to take over the IBA by passing candidates who belong to this political majority group, which made the civil society pay attention and started to put pressure again sending a number of civil society leaders to be among the members of the committee in charge of selecting IBA board members. This committee is comprised of representatives of freedom of expression groups and human rights organizations as well as a representative of the Media Workers Association of South Africa (MWASA) and the independent TV sector, along with a media academics, a media law professor, an expert on media economics, and a representative of South Africa language specialist. By this, the committee cannot designate anyone for the IBA board without the consent of at least five members affiliated with the civil society organizations, in addition to one or two persons from the Parliament's minority or opposition parties.
ب- The Czech Republic's case
Characteristics of the media situation under the totalitarian regime in Czechoslovakia
The media sector in the Czech Republic (when it was part of Czechoslovakia) had undergone arbitrary totalitarian systems for more than five decades; starting form the German occupation in 1938 which lasted for over 16 years, and the rule of the Russian Communist Party since 1945, until the Velvet Revolution in 1989.
Under the rule of the Communist Party, all media outlets had been controlled, as it was characterized by the following features:
– The absence of any private media outlets
– There were three television channels and one radio channel
– There was only one news agency and seven local newspapers
– The absence of any media or journalists' institution or syndicate since 1938, when the country was under the Nazis' control.
The first steps in media reform began just few days after the 20 November 1989 Revolution. On the 24th of the same year, the official state-owned radio announced joining the public strike and so did the state's official gazette.
During these few weeks after the revolution, the reform process was marked by the following:
1- Immediate changes in media trends
2- An immediate change in both video and audio services and press authorities' mangers within the 14 days of the revolution
3- Announcing the elimination of all restrictions imposed on the free press in the country and the start of establishing a legal basis for media and press freedom
4- Start looking for new media work standards
5- Founding new and daily radio stations and newspapers
6- Benefiting from other countries' experiences – taking into account the differences and intersections-
Throughout the six months that followed the revolution, during which Vaclav Havel, who led Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution, was declared as the President of the Czech Republic witnessing the first free and fair elections in June 1990, Czech media succeeded in transforming from the dependency phase to independence. Those in charge of media institutions had been aware of the importance of passing legislations that would achieve intended independence. After a year and a half, Czech Republic developed a new basic law, Act of 1992, to be the charter of the media profession.
Czech journalist "Jerry Meister" sees there are three milestones in the process of transition from autocracy media to public service media in the Czech Republic:
First: The Screening Act (1991 – 2000) which means avoiding the undesirables and getting rid of those who worked for the executive, legislative and political authorities, either for their corruption or failure.
Second: The economic independence as a prerequisite for the independence of the editorial policy, and this would be through reducing the number of employees, getting rid of the non-productive elements, and relying on the state budget support.
Third: Setting editorial policy resisting the political and capital interference, following a rule that is named "Killing all what is formal/official", in addition to the ongoing training and leaning.
Jerry stressed the Czech experience in media reform has proved that its process is ongoing and has no end.[13]
Section V
Egypt's Constitution and Legislations on Press and Media
The Egyptian Constitution of 2014 includes many articles that provide for freedom of opinion and expression. Seven of these articles focus on journalism and media, including three that organize the Supreme Council for Media Regulation, the National Press Authority, and the National Media body. Thus, it is necessary to read these articles carefully before considering how to formulate a media system that works for reform and development.
Article (68):
"Information, data, statistics and official documents are the property of the People and the disclosure thereof from their various sources is a right guaranteed by the State for all citizens. The State is committed to provide and make them available to citizens in a transparent manner. The Law shall regulate the rules for obtaining them and terms for their availability and confidentiality; the rules for their deposit and storage; and the rules for and filing complaints against the refusal to provide them. The Law shall also impose penalties for withholding information or deliberately providing wrong information.
The State institutions shall deposit official documents with the National Library and Archives once they are no longer in use. The State institutions shall also protect, and secure such documents against loss or damage, as well as restoring and digitizing them using all modern means and instruments according to the Law."
Article (70):
"Freedom of the press, printing and paper, visual, audio and electronic publication is guaranteed. Every Egyptian – whether being natural or legal, public or private person – shall have the right to own and issue newspapers and establish visual, audio and digital media outlets.
Newspapers may be issued once notification is given as regulated by Law. The Law shall regulate the procedures of establishing and owning visual and radio broadcast stations and online newspapers."
Article (71):
"It is prohibited to censor, confiscate, suspend or shut down Egyptian newspapers and media outlets in any way. By way of exception, they may be subject to limited censorship in times of war or general mobilization.
No freedom restricting penalty shall be imposed for publication or publicity crimes. As for crimes related to the incitement of violence, discrimination between citizens, or impingement of individual honor, the Law shall stipulate the penalties therefore. "
Article (72):
"The State shall ensure the independence of all State-owned press institutions and media outlets, in a manner ensuring their neutrality and presentation of all political and intellectual opinions and trends as well as social interests and also guaranteeing equality and equal opportunities in addressing public opinion."
Article (211):
"The Supreme Council for the Regulation of Media is an independent entity that has a legal personality, and enjoys technical, financial and administrative independence, and has an independent budget.
The Council shall be competent to regulate the affairs of audio and visual media and regulate the printed and digital press, and other media means.
The Council shall bear the responsibility for guaranteeing and protecting the freedom of press and media as stipulated in the Constitution, safeguarding its independence, neutrality, plurality and diversity, preventing monopolistic practices, monitoring the legality of the sources of funding of press and media institutions and developing the controls and criteria necessary to ensure compliance by the press and media outlets with the professional and ethical standards, and national security needs as stated in the Law.
The law shall determine the composition and regulations of the Council, and the employment conditions for its staff.
The Council shall be consulted with respect to the bills and regulations related to its scope of competence."
Article (212):
"The National Press Organization is an independent organization that shall manage and develop state-owned press institutions and their assets, as well as ensure their modernization, independence, neutrality and their adherence to good professional, administrative and economic standards.
The law shall determine the composition and regulations of the Organization, and the employment conditions for its staff.
It shall be consulted with respect to the bills and regulations pertaining to its scope of work."
Article (213):
"The National Media Organization is an independent organization that shall manage and develop state-owned visual, audio and digital media outlets and their assets, as well as ensure their development, independence, neutrality and their adherence to good professional, administrative and economic standards. The law shall determine the composition and regulations of the Organization, and the employment conditions for its staff.
It shall be consulted with respect to the bills and regulations pertaining to its scope of work."
National Media Organization (NMO) draft law
In November 2014, the National Legislative Committee for Media and Journalism, formed by the Press Syndicate and the Supreme Press Council alongside a number of independent journalists and media workers, held its full committee meeting- with a number of 45 members (journalists, media workers and lawyers). The committee had spent a full year in preparing a draft law regulating journalism and media, then it submitted it to the government of then-Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb, who promised to pass it. A new Parliament was established when Sherif Ismail took over promising, also, to refer the bill to the Parliament in order to discuss ratifying it, which hasn't occurred until the writing of this report.
Given the length of the period and the amendments expected to be made to it, we will only comment on its two most important articles, relating to the formation of " the National Media Organization (NMO), or National Media Authority, for being the core of this law.
Chapter 3
National Media Organization (NMO)
Article (177):
An independent body, named "National Media Organization" and headquartered in Cairo, shall be established, to manage and develop state-owned audio-visual and digital institutions and their assets, as well as to ensure their independence, neutrality and their adherence to the standards of the public service media in a professional, administrative and economic framework.
Article (178):
The National Media Organization is comprised of maximum 13 members:
– Two members selected by the President of the Republic.
– Two members selected by the House of Representatives' non-members, who are specialized in media and administration.
– Three members nominated by the media syndicate board's non-members, from experienced media workers who are affiliated with the state-owned media institutions.
– One Member of the State Council to be nominated by its Board.
– One Member chosen by the Writers Union Board from its non-members to represent the public opinions.
– Two members selected by the Supreme Council of Universities: one radio and TV professor and the other is economic or finance professor.
– One member form the Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF)'s non-members.
– Member selected by the General Trade Union of Press, Printing and Information of Egypt from its non-members of the NMO institutions.
The formation of NMO shall be issued upon a resolution from the President of the Republic.
Comments on the proposed law
- Article (178) of the bill addresses how the National Media Organization (NMO) can be formed and the President's authority to select two members from NMO's Board of Directors, a matter which means that NMO would continue to be affiliated with the executive power. The basic rule for achieving the independence of media is to be completely separated from the state's executive branch. The Egyptian experience is very bitter with respect to this point; because if anyone is appointed by the government or the president for any post, his allegiance would be pledged to the ruling power, not to the people or the citizen, which would devastate the independence and liberty stipulated by the Constitution. The crux of any law will always be "Who would implement the law? "Since this article is very important, we have completely alienate the Egyptian media from the executive branch in a way that it would prevent its interference in any decisions of appointment or selection made by the media authority, so that its independence stipulated by law could be attained.
- Regarding the legislative step, which provides that National Media Organization (NMO) is a non-profitable public service authority, we have to speak about the financial solution and the debt dilemma in Maspero. We agree with Essam Al-Amir when he proposed an idea about how to make advantage of the lands granted to Maspero by turning them to his ownership putting the unneeded areas for sale and renting ERTU's private frequencies, which are valued at 6 billion and 500 million pounds. By increasing the number of the broadcasting and TV frequencies, this amount of money will be raised- when ERTU gets rid of all the unneeded frequencies according to the vision he proposed in the re-organization and combination of channels and stations. Such a matter would raise more money that would sufficiently cover the 21 billion pounds- debt. This is in addition to what Essam Al-Amir had previously mentioned about the availability of the condition of the seriousness in paying the debt off, which is required by law as a condition to allow the reducing of the debt incurred by Maspero.
Nevertheless, the idea proposed by Essam Al-Amir regarding the investment-for-profit companies being part of the NMO is totally incompatible with the idea of the public service media that is funded by taxpayers, and accordingly it shouldn't be subject to any kind of f commercial media with its publicity and advertisements.
Section VI
A Vision for Reform
First: Television
1- Rule of sorting
- It has become imperative to form a committee that lists the corrupt and misleading media practices in order to exclude those who are following them and select new leaders. Job bureaucratic rules have to be broken also because they result in a second or third grade of staff. This is in addition to ensuring accuracy in the selection process so that the formed committee will be mostly comprised of people with neutral views, who are known for their defending of human rights and their adherence to the professional media standards. The committee will be having the ability to select new leaders for Maspero through the receipt of candidates' papers under transparent tests that are available for the public to ensure the accurate monitoring of the selection process.
2- Editorial policies
This means setting an editorial policy for the media authority with all its departments: public service-based news bulletins and programs, variety shows and diversified media production. There has to be a clear definition of the powers and duties as well as the mission and specialization of each TV or radio channel, to avoid inconsistencies or the repetition of the service provided like what's happening now.
3- The proposed organizational structure
* The number of sectors in the Maspero amounted to 12. Also, with the continued decrease in the rate of labor growth, which would almost reach the model rate throughout the upcoming few years, it would become so easy and practical to integrate these sectors together- as we basically suggested- leading to the ease of performance and the elimination of bureaucracy.
We can re-organize the media authority and integrate its sectors together, so that it would be in line with the objectives previously explained in the public service media section. And this would be through passing the National Media Authority law under no interference by the executive branch, represented in the president or the government, neither their participation in the selection of the authority board members. We also have to state that the media authority is a public service-targeted body and not a profitable one, and that it receives their funds from taxpayers and is keen on providing the appropriate and professional service at a high quality. By guaranteeing all of these points, the structure of the media body that we proposed would become as follows:
* Radio Sector: in charge of everything related to radio or broadcasting along with its technical/ engineering and economic administrations and help services.
* TV Sector: in charge of everything related to the television and its general and specialized channels alongside its necessary technical and economic administrations and help services.
* Production Sector: includes the Sono Cairo Co. (Sawt al-Qahira), which is a co-director of in the Media Production City, and is in charge of drama production.
* Central Department of News Bulletins and Programs: oversees the newsletters and news-based programs and services in both the TV and Radio Sectors.
* Central Department of Radio Engineering: includes two administration sections, one for TV and the other for radio, and is in charge of all engineering/ technical sector's functions. It is under the supervision of the TV and Radio Sectors.
* Central Department for Financial and Administrative Affairs (formerly the economic sector)
* Department of Websites and Social Networking: oversees the Radio and Television magazine, which has started to be issued electronically only, and is affiliated with the TV Sector.
* Central Department of Training and Monitoring.
* The Security Sector would be turning into security departments belonging to the three sectors.
* The General Secretariat and ERTU Head Sectors would be transformed into many departments/ administrations with their different competences. The General Secretariat Sector will be affiliated with both the Radio and TV Sectors, whereas the ERTU Head into a department that belongs to the National Media Organization/ Authority.
4- A vision for TV channels after putting NMO law into effect
* Channels 1 and 2 will be merged into one general channel benefiting from the cooperation between the the two channels' media workers in order to provide public media service for the people.
* The Egyptian Satellite Channel (ESC) will be integrated with Channel while strengthening the transmission so that it will be covering different countries around the world including the United States and Canada.
* Nile News Channel with be having an independent editorial board along with a set of local and international reporters befitting Egypt's news/reporting expertise.
* Both English and French Nile TV Channels: to bolster its broadcasting capability to many countries around the world so that it will stand as the voice of Egypt abroad.
* Nile TV sport
* Nile TV Drama (Cinema)
* Nile TV Series
* Education and Culture channel
* A channel for children shall be launched immediately; as there are a lot of untapped capabilities and expertises in Maspero, instead of leaving our children ahead of many alien channels which may negatively affect them in most cases.
* 'Maspero Zaman' Channel needs to be developed to cope with its cultural and historical content followed-up by many old people.
* Regional channels shall be integrated into three specialized local channels, and their editorial policy shall be set with great accuracy, so that it could play its role that is different form the public channels. Like all local and social channels in the world, regional channels should care about the areas that are covering. These regional channels are: (Al-Qahera Al-Kobra (Greater Cairo) Channel- Bahry (maritime) Channel- Upper Egypt Channel)
Second: Radio
Changing the organizational structure of the radio authority
Before proposing a new formulation for the Egyptian radio, which is the first radio authority in the Middle East, let's stand on an interpretation that is much closer to the problem suffered by Egypt's broadcasting, which is the content itself. Then, we will discuss the dilemma of the administrative laxity and the increasing number of employees that we mentioned in a previous section. We will also add a special section about modes of radio broadcasting/frequencies:
1- Medium Wave (MW) transmitters: It is a method that is used in internal radio broadcasting. It can still be used as long as stations' maintenance are provided on a regular basis. However, these stations haven't received maintenance since a long time ago, to the extent that there are some frequencies that have not been maintained since the seventies, including the ones of Palestine Radio and Nile Valley Radio channels, which resulted in poor signals that they can hardly be audible.
2- Short Wave radio frequencies: It is used for external transmitting (broadcasting outside Egypt). It has become utterly neglected since the eighties.
3- Frequency Modulation (FM) frequencies: It is a higher quality method since it covers a less distance, maximumly estimated at 100 kilometers. Because most radio stations in Egypt relies on FM frequencies, it has become unavailable.
4- Nilesat-based broadcasting: It can only be used in the Arab region as it cannot fit in the countries that are operating with the Cable system.
5- Web-based broadcasting: It can be used in the technological developed countries. This service can also be provided via mobile phone applications in cooperation with telecommunications companies.
* As we mentioned before, the Egyptian Radio involves nine networks: El Bernameg Al Aam (General Program)- Sowt Al-Arab (Arabs Voice)- Al-Quran Al-Karim (Holy Quran)- Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (Middle East)- Al-Shabab Wal Ryiada (Youth and Sport)- Al-Iklemat (Regions)- Al-Mowgahat- Al-Thakafyia (Cultural)- Nile Radio Network) These networks include 58 radio stations with an average daily broadcast rate of 482 hours, according to the 2012 Maspero Yearbook.
Proposed organizational restructure and modifications:
Maspero doesn't need more than 7 radio networks. The Middle East radio station can be integrated with the General Program station, The Cultural Program Network can be also merged with the Specialized Network while adding a cultural station that can provide a music service instead of the one offered by the Musical Program. Therefore, the radio networks will become as follows:
- The General Program: broadcasting 24 hours a day.
- The Holy Quran: broadcasting 24 hours a day.
- The Arabs' Voice: broadcasting for eight and thirty hours, equally divided among the following three stations:
- The Arabs' Voice: broadcasts for 24 hours to cover the Arab region, taking into consideration the time zone difference (2 hours + in the East and 2 hours – in the West).
- Palestine: broadcasting for 8 hours and strengthening the transmission using the FM frequencies in El-Arish to cover Gaza and nearby areas
- Nile Valley: broadcasts for 6 hours with the adoption of the FM frequencies in the far south of Egypt covering northern Sudan. It can be re-broadcasted inside Sudan using the Sudanese radio. This service should also be provided by the Egyptian satellite Nilesat so that it can be broadcasted by the Sudanese radio via the Internet.
- The Specialized Network: broadcasting for 24 hours as a total, equally divided among the following seven stations:
1- Youth radio station: for 12 hours. It shall be separated from the Sport one because no youth programs are being provided with a specialized or focused way in the Youth and Sport radio station.
2- Sport radio: broadcasts for 8 hours.
3- Senior-citizens radio station: 7 hours.
4- News station: 24 hours.
5- Music station: 24 hours.
6- Cultural station: 12 hours.
7- Regions Network: It can be integrated into three regional radio stations, and can be divided the same way of the regional channels. We also have to ensure that all the content provided here is locally produced, unlike the case now where the content of the regional stations doesn't differ so much from the one provided by the public stations. Each of these three stations can broadcast for 16 hours out of the 48 total hours a day.
(Al-Qahera Al-Kobra (Greater Cairo) Channel- Bahry (maritime) Channel- Upper Egypt Channel)
Directed Networks: It includes more than 32 radio stations at a rate of 1 to 2 hours of radio broadcasting for each station. According to a radio official- who preferred to be anonymous, these stations are not audible except by those who are working inside them. Their transmissions are no longer covering their targeted countries, and this is because they haven't received any maintenance since over thirty years ago.
Egypt needs this network, especially in the Nile Basin and African countries, where it had played an important role in the sixties and seventies of the last century. And because this role has declined in Africa, the attention and care given to these station has been dwindled as well, despite the fact that there is a fair number of educated and intellectual citizens form African countries who are still associated with Al-Azhar and the Egyptian church till today.
The solution.. in points:
First: Strengthening, improving and maintaining the broadcasting/ transmission frequencies, and establishing broadcasting- support stations in collaboration with Egyptian embassies and the Foreign Ministry.
Second: Distributing small radio devices in these countries similar to what BBC was doing.
Third: Cooperating with the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Tourism alongside Al-Azhar, the Church and the Ministry of Higher Education.
Fourth: Apart from Africa, these stations can be broadcast via the Nilesat.
Fifth: It can also be broadcasted through the Internet in the technologically-developed countries.
This study reflects a modest effort and assiduousness that is basically aimed at developing and achieving the media objectives of Maspero, whose officials themselves are speaking about its backwardness. It is not at all aiming for the banishing of any official working therein or the devastation of the institution (ERTU). We have to care about it, but without leaving its conditions the way they are, and of course, this study is open to debate and all the views are acceptable so that we could reach to the best structure of media in Egypt.
The Republic of Maspero ERTU – The Egyptian Radio and Television Union from a reform perspective word
The Republic of Maspero ERTU – The Egyptian Radio and Television Union from a reform perspective pdf
[1] Encyclopedia Britannica Website Date of last visit of the website: 20 -8-2016- Link: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gaston-Maspero
Gaston Camille Maspero.. Date: 20 -8-2016- Link: http://lite.almasryalyoum.com/lists/25781/ )
Masress : Arab News Agency website Date: 20 -8-2016- Link: http://www.masress.com/october/121990 )
[2] Dr. Magi Al-Halawani, "Arab Radio" book, 1st edition 1982- The Arab Thought Foundation (Al-Fikr AlArabi), (Page 71-71, 88 -89)
[3] The decision to appoint Osama Hekel as the Minister of Media, published on Al-Ahram newspaper dated 8-7-2011- Date of browsing the website: 23 -9-2016- Link: http://ahram.org.eg/archive/588/2011/7/8/27/88280/219.aspx
[4] The decision issued by Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab, published at Al-Aharam Gate website, dated: 16-6-2014- Date of visiting the website: 23-9-2016- Link: http://gate.ahram.org.eg/News/505207.aspx
[5] Maspero's annual publication of 2012
[6] Maspero's annual publication of 2012
[7] Prime Minister's decision, published in Al-Ahram Gate on 24-4-2016.. Date of last website visit: 20-9-2016- Link: http://gate.ahram.org.eg/News/911957.aspx
[8] Maspero's annual publication of 2012
[9] Maspero's annual publication of 2012
[10] Interview with former ERTU head Essam Al-Amir during the summer of 2016.
[11] The speech of German expert Hendrik Boucek at the National Coalition for Media's Conference held in January 2014
[12] Part of an unpublished paper for the German media expert Hendrik Mr. Boucek
[13] A research paper by Czech journalist Jerry Meister, head of the Czech News Agency in the audio-visual media conference held in March 2012 in Egypt.


text:
09/08/2017 Zobrazenie celkom: 11308 Dnes: 4
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
We live in strange times. Companies are increasingly running applications on computers owned and operated by another company. Employees tend to look upon their colleagues in information technology as more of a nuisance than an asset.
Satya Nadella thinks his company can help make sense of it all.
On Monday, at Microsoft's Ignite conference in Chicago, the chief executive will directly address those tech professionals who make sure email gets where it needs to go and that corporate databases keep chugging along. To them Nadella will issue a reminder that even though many dollars budgeted for technology are now flowing to marketing or other corporate departments, that doesn't mean IT spending is down overall or that the need for tech specialists has evaporated. Quite the contrary.
Last week Nadella spoke with Fortune about Microsoft's challenge in addressing this group about the company's strategy and how he feels about its cloud computing competition. It's the latest stop in a two-month itinerary that has placed Nadella in front of his company's largest constituencies, from users of Microsoft business applications (at Convergence in March) to software developers (at Build last week).
For those readers wondering, Fortune did ask Nadella about reports that Microsoft (msft) may be the company behind a recent takeover offer for Salesforce (crm), a company that has proven to be a rival and sometimes partner to the Redmond, Wash. company. He refused to comment.
The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Fortune: Microsoft's theme of aligning IT with businesses is something you've talked about for years. So what's new in the cloud era?
Nadella: It is all about empowering IT. And in some sense I look at it and say, you know, of course IT stands for information technology, but none of those other transformations for business users can really be achieved, especially in the context of the enterprise, if IT professionals don't also think of themselves as key drivers of innovation and transformation. And that's kind of the play with words that I've been thinking about a lot. IT really stands for innovation and transformation.
Many employees view IT as naysayers and gatekeepers. I don't see that changing. Isn't that what drove the bring-your-own-device [BYOD] stuff in the first place?
That's right. And I think that is the challenge. One of the things that I've been really focused on, long before even becoming CEO, has been Enterprise Mobility Suite [Microsoft's software to manage corporate devices]. The thing about bring your own device or bring your own service is, what happens to the information assurance of a company? Okay, so you move to another company. What happens to all the access you had as a person with credentials? Who is taking care of restricting all of that?
So I feel that there has to be the freedom for end users to be able to choose devices and choose services and yet the ability for IT to govern but not control. I think that transformation—from control to govern, from provision to enable—is what IT must go through. And quite frankly it's not just about them not wanting to change. It's also incumbent on us, especially as a massive provider to IT, to give them the right kind of solutions.
One of the things we're talking about right now is Windows 10. We are making it possible for businesses to stay current with Windows as a service [as easily as consumers have been able to]. There are lots of technology elements to this—for example, there are things that we're doing in Windows Update to still give IT a lot of governance around how patches are applied but solve some of the things that get in the way of IT being able to satisfy their customers.
So yes, you're absolutely right. IT has to go from saying "no" to saying "yes," but saying "yes" with assurance. And that I think is both a technology problem for us to solve and what we must talk a lot about and evangelize.
Many companies think that if they put more business applications in the cloud, they don't need as many IT people. Maybe you don't need a SharePoint expert or an Exchange expert. Is the net number of IT professionals shrinking at large companies?
There are always going to be people who are experts in security, or end-user devices, or collaboration, or databases. That's not going to go away. But what's the reason all of these professions come together? To help the business transform itself.
You talk about shrinking budgets. So here is a fascinating phenomenon. Ask any company—it could be in manufacturing, packaged goods, energy, retail, what have you—what in their total digital technology spend is going up as a percentage of revenue. Then ask what is coming down. It's what was considered past IT—maybe a bunch of fans, or servers. Even if you are predominantly an on-premise customer, you're using the cloud quite a bit for development and testing new applications. You may be building a mobile or web back end in the cloud, but you're not yet moving your ERP ["enterprise resource planning"] system to the cloud.
So in a sense they want more out of the same dollar for what they did yesterday. And then they want to spend more dollars for things that they're doing that are new.
IT spend is not limited just to the IT department. It's spread across marketing and human resources. One of the fascinating things I see is the amount of analytics spend. Power BI [a Microsoft "business intelligence" service], which we launched as SaaS ["software-as-a-service," the industry term for a cloud-based application], I initially thought would be used by developers and maybe marketers. It turns out that HR departments all use Power BI because "people analytics" is a big deal. So in places where I traditionally would not have expected big IT spending, they are becoming big spenders of IT, because IT is everywhere.
Let's talk about data, making really complex data sets, and making the ability to parse them available to mere mortals.
If you look at what has happened with our database business, at the core, with SQL Server...I mean, it's just pretty hilarious for me to think about people who think of Amazon Web Services as a leader in data and not have an understanding of the democratization of data that we have done with our regular old database business—an $8 billion business that's everywhere, in the core of the enterprise.
We just bought a company called Revolution Analytics. We are going to completely change what it means to do advanced analytics with our data solutions. We have machine-learning stuff that is about really bringing advanced analytics and statistical machine learning into data-science departments everywhere. We absolutely have this strength in Excel, but Power BI is a SaaS service that allows you to do these rich visualizations and dashboards and collaborate and share.
I've been very, very focused on usage. I look at what's happening in Office 365 by tenant, by service. All of that is dashboarded. So if one of the engineers on Office 365, say Exchange Online, has a dashboard I can go discover that usage. So it's become, in fact, the lingua franca of how we make sense of big data inside the company and how we collaborate on it.
And it's not just reports or dashboards. It's live data. That means I can ask a natural-language question, get a response, do a rich visualization, and then share back. That, I think, is what I referenced before as data culture. Just because you have big data doesn't mean you have insights or a better ability to pass judgment. So you've got to have this data culture. What does that mean? You are only going to have a data culture if you have the right kinds of tools. That's what Power BI is about.
Most people see Amazon as the leader in core infrastructure. Over time it added higher level services and talked more to big companies like General Electric. What's your take on the competitive landscape for big customers when it comes to cloud computing? Is Google a contender?
The enterprise market is never winner-take-all. If you look at the previous client-server era, we had a lot of success. So did Oracle, EMC, Cisco. And now, when you look at the current cloud era, you would say there is us, there's Amazon, and there's Google who have that hyperscale cloud. But really it's Amazon, us, and maybe VMware who will translate the position that they had in the previous era to one in this new era.
I really am not focused on competing against Amazon in IaaS ["infrastructure-as-a-service"]. That's not what it's about. Take Azure Active Directory. It's got 5 million entities—that means 5 million commercial organizations that have a relationship with Microsoft in the cloud and not on premise or with our licenses. None of that. They're using Dynamics for CRM ["customer relationship management"] or ERP ["enterprise resource management"], Office 365, Azure, Enterprise Mobility Suite. That is representing 450 million individual identities within that 5 million organizational footprint.
To me what matters is having the right mix of SaaS value. I don't think of my server business as somehow "old school" or "legacy." I actually think of the server as the edge of my cloud.
We now have the ability to tie together the cloud and the server. That is a very unique capability that we have. So who am I competing with? Amazon has no capability to compete there. They don't have a server. Nor does Google. Oracle doesn't have the equivalent capability. So those are the places where we want to really excel.
I'm not claiming that we are the only guys who are going to succeed in the cloud. Others can succeed as well, just like in the previous generation. But the people who are on the right side of history, so to speak, when it comes to technology promise? You identified them right. There is Google, Amazon, and us. But who has the credentials with the enterprise? Who has the tenacity to stay constant with it? It's not a fashionable thing to say you're in the enterprise business for a few days and then move onto the next project.
I want to build our own public cloud at scale. We have over a million machines. I want to take the same software and—well, this is how we got to SQL [Server] 2016. It's already running; it's called Azure DB. We will now take that and reverse-integrate it into a server product. That's the kind of capability that I feel will serve us well in the long run.
I don't think we've actually mentioned Windows or Office once. Is Microsoft still a Windows company?
Windows is used by a billion and a half users. We see, on a monthly basis, 850 million machines that touch Windows Update. This is not even counting the machines behind corporate firewalls that don't directly talk to Windows Update. So it's a vibrant user base. And there are 300 million PCs, by the way, sold every year.
So Windows 10 is huge to me. It's the beginning of a new generation of Windows. It's not just about PCs. It's about tablets and phones. It's also about holographic computers and Surface Hub. It's about [simple, versatile computers like] Raspberry Pi. Windows has gone way beyond the PC. It's one core, one store, one platform.
So to me Windows is very much part of the cloud. But one of the fundamental things I believe is, it's not just about one device. When I say "mobile first" or "cloud first," to me it's about the mobility of the app or the experience, not the mobility of the device. And if you believe that, then the control plane is really the cloud.
I actually talked quite a bit about Office 365 in this conversation. The fact that you didn't think of it as Office is interesting. Office 365, that's where Azure Active Directory gets all those organizational tenants from. It's core to what we're doing in Azure. It's core to what we're doing in Office. And guess what? When you log into Windows, you're logged into both your Microsoft account and your Azure Active Directory. So the control plane is in the cloud. And those are the ways things come together.
If I'm a mobile developer, I can develop for Apple iOS, I can develop for Android, or I can develop for Windows. But there's been strife with hardware makers and Microsoft. Why develop for you and not them?
I think they will choose to develop wherever they can make the most amount of money by reaching the most amount of users. At Build we said that we want them to write universal Windows apps [that work across devices]. There are many cases to be made for it. When you build a universal app, and you want a 10-foot experience, you can go to the Xbox. You want to innovate and build a holographic app, you can use the same application on a holographic computer like HoloLens. You can, of course, run it on our tablets like the Surface Pro 3.
So you now have these "Windows Continuum" features where those universal applications can gracefully move between a tablet and a laptop. It's relevant for consumers, but it's also going to be relevant in many industrial scenarios. Those are the kinds of reasons why developers will want to look at us and build for us. But we made it clear at Build that developers can use our back end and still target Android or iOS devices. They can have our Enterprise Mobility Suite and, if they're an IT person, manage security, identity, device management, and data-loss protection across Android, iOS, and Windows. That's a unique capability of ours.


text:
|This is a disambiguation page, a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. If an article link referred you here, you might want to go back and fix it to point directly to the intended page.
Mullins could refer to the following:
Characters Edit
- Mullins (Chaos Theory) - a commuter who was car jacked by Jack Bauer during Chaos Theory
- Mullins (Day 8) - a security contractor working for Mark Bledsoe during Season 8
- Keith Mullins - the CTU Director during 24: Legacy
Actors Edit
- Steven Mullins - played a CIA agent during 24: Live Another Day


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text:
O'Connell puts five Western Mass. sites up for auction
This story has been modified to add a fifth Berkshire location in North Adams.
PITTSFIELD >> O'Connell Oil Associates is continuing to shed properties.
The Pittsfield-based company has put six additional Western Massachusetts sites — five of them in Berkshire County — up for sale at auction.
The move comes after O'Connell recently conveyed 22 other Western Massachusetts sites that it owns in the Pittsfield and Springfield markets to Waltham-based Global Partners LP via long-term leases.
The auction is scheduled to for 1 p.m. on Thursday, April 28 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on West Street in Pittsfield. It is being conducted by Tranzon Auction Properties of Maine, a national auction agency that has a state office in Arlington.
The five Berkshire County sites being offered at auction are located at 26 Commercial St. in Adams; 621 Main St. in Dalton; 275 Elm St. in Pittsfield, 1 State Rd. in North Adams, and 259 Main St. in Williamstown, according to documents on Tranzon Auction Properties website. The sixth property is located at 2821 Boston Post Road in Wilbraham.
Neither Tranzon representative Samantha Kelley nor O'Connell CEO Michael R. Sobon returned telephone calls seeking comment.
The properties in Williamstown and Wilbraham are listed as gas/service stations and convenience stores, while the three others are listed solely as gas/service stations, according to the auction documents. The Williamstown site also has a drive-thru, while the Wilbraham property sports a car wash.
Each of the five properties contains a building with more than 1,000 square feet. The properties are being sold in "as-is" condition with no contingencies, according to Tranzon. Under the terms of the auction, closings are scheduled to take place within 45 days of the sale.
Of the 22 O'Connell sites involved in the Global Partners' transaction, 12 were located in Berkshire County, including four in Pittsfield. All of those properties contained gas stations and convenience stores.
Founded in 1925, O'Connell Oil Associates also has offices in North Adams and Northampton. Prior to the Global Partners deal, O'Connell operated 29 Convenience Plus stores, seven gas stations, a wholesale gasoline business, and full-service commercial and residential plumbing, heating and air conditioning departments, according to the company's website.
Tranzon has been involved in the sales of other Berkshire commercial properties including the auction of three Burger King restaurants in November 2012.
Contact Tony Dobrowolski at 413-496-6224.
If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us. We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom.


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ALL WE HAVE IS NOW by Author Book Review
Publication Date: July 28th 2015 by Scholastic Point
Rating: – Poor
Book Summary: What do you do with your last day on earth?
Just over twenty-four hours are left until an asteroid strikes North America, and for Emerson and everyone else who didn't leave, the world will end. But Emerson's world already ended when she ran away from home. Since then, she has lived on the streets, relying on her wits and on her friend Vince to help her find places to sleep and food to eat.
The city's quieter now that most people are gone, and no one seems to know what to do as the end approaches. But then Emerson and Vince meet Carl, who tells them he has been granting people's wishes—and gives them his wallet full of money.
Suddenly, this last day seems full of possibility. Emerson and Vince can grant a lot of wishes in one last day—maybe even their own.
Book Review Overview:
- A light apocalytpic novel with the feel of a contemporary novel
- Failed to make a connection with the characters
- The premise of the plot doesn't make sense at all
In just over 24 hours, an asteroid will make impact with earth. All We Have is Now by Lisa Schroeder follows two teens who decide to make the most of their last day on earth by making people's dreams come true. With the constant onslaught of post-apocalyptic/dystopian worlds, it's refreshing to see a light apocalyptic novel with the feel of a contemporary novel. I like the idea of the characters embracing life during their last moments and living it to the fullest.
Vince and Emerson are two homeless teens living in Portland, Oregon. Emerson is a runaway, who left home after she could not get along with her mother's new boyfriend. Her best friend, Vince, is a foster kid who decided to leave the system and try living on his own. Unfortunately, I failed to make a connection with either of these characters. The lack of connection made it very difficult for me to empathize with their problems.


text:
Clarkson University
in partnership with:
Clarkson University
What is Zipcar?
Glad you asked. It's a smarter way to get around the campus.
how it works
Apply online. Once approved, we'll send you a Zipcard to access vehicles worldwide.
Book a Zipcar for as little as 1 hour or as long as 7 days.
Hold your Zipcard to the car's windshield to unlock. Voila! It's all yours.
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Student memberships are only $15! (That's $10 off. Thanks to Ford.)
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Student memberships are only $15! (That's $10 off. Thanks to Ford.)
where can i go
There's a lot to do around Clarkson University. Here are just a few ideas.
Corc Thrift Store
It might not be a great selection, but I'll give ANY thrift store high marks, purely for providing a much needed relief to the community. There are many...more
Creative Spirit Art Center
This place is great - they sell artwork from local artisans on the main floor, while running a gallery in the basement for students and other artists to...more
Living Stones Bookstore
Good Christian Bookstore for a town as small as Potsdam.more
Love the Walgreen's. It's amazing that you can sometimes find deals that beat out Wal-Mart here, even though it's a tiny store. I also think that...more
SummerHaven Pool Hearth & Spa
I was glad when the previous owner ( who was not the most customer service friendly) sold to the Bicknell family. The Bicknell's own quite a few stores in...more
The Club
I was in Massena with my grandmother and we were looking for a place to grab lunch so we decided to check this place out. All the restaurants in Massena are...more
Jreck Subs
Better than subway but still a fast food sandwich place. It's an upstate NY thing. If your not from here you wouldn't understand. I eat it everytime I'm...more
Rhomas Family Eatery
What a gem in the community! To get food like this you used to have to travel to Watertown or Plattsburgh. Very reasonably priced for portion size. I will...more
Jreck Subs
Ha! This is definitely not a steakhouse, but it's great! I don't live in Massena anymore, but I always make it a point to get a sub from Jrecks when I'm...more
Asian Buffet & Mongolian Grill
Variety is key and this place has got it. Mongolian grill, sushi and maki, salad, sweets, and of course very good Chinese style food. I was particularly...more


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About Perdido Beach (Click for our profile page)
Located in: Baldwin County (see below)
Typical Abbreviation: Perdido Bch.
Time Zone: Perdido Beach lies in the Central Time Zone (CST/CDT)<1>
Telephone Area Code: (251)
ZIP Code: 36530<2>
Elevation: Near sea level<3>
From the 2010 US Census (For more detail, see our Census Page for Perdido Beach)
Total Area:<5> 1.24 sq. miles [3.2 km²]
Housing Units:<6> 413
Official Website: www.townofperdidobeach.org/
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For the purpose of mapping and calculating distances, we have chosen a reference point within Perdido Beach. The point that we are using is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 30.3454, Longitude: -87.5060 [Map].
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About Baldwin County
The community of Bay Minette is the County Seat for Baldwin County.
From the 2010 US Census (For more detail, see our Census Page for Baldwin)
Total Area: 2,027 sq. miles [5,250.7 km²] - of which 21.58% is water (437.5 sq. miles [1,133.2 km²])
Housing Units: 104,061
Official Website: www.co.baldwin.al.us/
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text: NEW YORK ( Stockpickr) -- At Stockpickr, we track daily portfolios of stocks that are hitting new 52-week highs and 52-week lows. It often follows that a stock setting a new 52-week high will continue to set higher and higher highs (and the opposite for a stock setting a new 52-week low), and momentum traders often look to the 52-week-high lists for new stock ideas. Keep in mind, though, that new high prices can also indicate reasons for concern or caution in a stock. >>6 Crash Stocks to Buy Now Let's take a closer look at several stocks that hit new 52-week highs today. Altria ( MO), through its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells cigarettes, other tobacco products, machine-made large cigars and pipe tobacco. It also maintains a portfolio of leveraged and direct finance leases. The stock was recently trading up 5 cents at $27.85 after hitting a 52-week high of $28.14 earlier in the day. Today's Range: $27.79-$28.14 52-Week Range: $23.20-$28.14 Volume: 8.8 million Ratings: Of nine analysts covering Altria, four rate it a buy, and five rate it a hold. TheStreet Ratings has a B buy rating on Altria, making it one of the top-rated tobacco stocks. Activision Blizzard ( ATVI) is an online, personal computer, console and handheld game publisher. It was recently trading off 12 cents, or 0.9%, at $12.82 after hitting a 52-week high of $13.11 earlier in the day. Today's Range: $12.71-$13.11 52-Week Range: $10.40-$13.11 Volume: 8.6 million Ratings: Of 19 analysts covering the stock, 16 rate it a buy, and three rate it a hold. TheStreet Ratings' has a B buy rating on Activision. Activision is one of the top holdings at Whitney Tilson's T2 Partners.


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We are not able to access the third page of our formAsked by Tyseank on April 14, 2016 at 02:59 PM
In the process of testing out my form in the preview function it is not letting me access the next page of what is required for my survey? I don't know if it's a rule I applied or if it's something else. Please help me fix this
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"The right hand doesn't know what the left and..."
About: University Hospital Of North Tees University Hospital Of North Tees Stockton-on-Tees TS19 8PE
Posted by Marie
Brought my very ill husband into hospital on Friday night. Had fantastic support from A&E staff who got me a wheelchair and directed me to the right department. Lovely treatment in Rapid response and EAU. Specislist was very supportive and explained everything. Felt so confident when I went home and left my husband to be cared for.
The following day i turned up at ward 36 where he'd been taken. By 2pm my husband had stiil not had the much needed medication. After making a fuss the nurse gave my husband some medication that she'd said was from another patients personnel medicine. My GP's expectation was that my husbands heart would be monitored and this did not happen.
After asking 4 nurses and one doctor eventually the ventflon was finally removed, only took me 6 hours to get someone to do this!
My husband was left in room 11 while the room was deep cleaned. Was supposed to be moved to room 12. It was left to me to suggest to the cleaners to remove the empty bed from room 12 and place that in room 11 then put my husband in room 12 in the vacated place.it was the cleaners ego then moved him, nurses did not bat an eyelid which is a little concerning . Nurses appeared to be alwas busy BUT it concerns me that each nurse assumed someone else had done a job or it was the responsibility of someone else. They never seened to know where his medicine card was and it was me who located it on the bottom of the trolly.
Pharmacy seriously needs to be addressed. NO patient should have to wait such an astronomical wait for life saving medication. Doctor doing the rounds on Snday was appaulled about the delay. The medication prescribed should have 8 hours between doses, instead on Saturday my husband had 3 doses in 9 hours!
My husband is lucky he's got me to fight his corner, what about those other elderly patients who don't? Whose going to get them water? The nurses, the health care assistants? I don't think so, they'll think someone else has gone to do it!
Response from University Hospital Of North Tees nearly 2 years ago
We're very sorry to hear you and your husband feel let down by his recent stay in hospital. We'd be more than willing to discuss your concerns. If you would like to do this then please contact our patient experience team at email@example.com