BBC Monitoring

Text of report in English by Egyptian news agency MENA

Cairo, 7 October: Mustafa al-Bakri, the editor-in-chief of Al-Usbu newspaper, on Sunday [7 October] tendered his resignation from membership of the dialogue committee formed by the Press Syndicate to negotiate with state institutions on imprisonment sentences issued against some journalilsts and chief editors.

Negotiations were also to cover referring Ibrahim Isa, chief editor of Al-Dostur newspaper, to trial on charges of spreading rumours on the health of President Husni Mubarak.

Bakri said in the resignation letter he delivered to Jalal Arif, the chairman of the Syndicate of Journalists, that he tendered his resignation for several reasons, including the syndicate council's submission to a few number of the council members, who hijacked the syndicate and took control of its decisions.

Bakri was also dissatisfied with what he said was the silence of the syndicate's chairman over false allegations by the secretary of the syndicate ! in which he said that the council backed the disappearance of several newspapers and the rejection of requests presented by 10 chief editors to the syndicate secretary to discuss giving the dialogue committee a week before the papers disappeared.

He held the chairman of the syndicate and its council responsible for what he described as the uncertain fate of journalists in the coming period.

Source: MENA news agency, Cairo, in English 1446 gmt 7 Oct 07