Islamic website staff hold Cairo sit-in
More than 300 reporters for Islam Online camped out in their Cairo offices on Wednesday in protest at alleged efforts by the management in Qatar to assume editorial control of the Islamic website.
The Qatari-based website, which has its editorial offices in Egypt, was founded by popular exiled Egyptian cleric Yusef al-Qardawi and posts news items as well as sections on Islamic lifestyle and advice from clerics.
Hisham Gafar, an Islam Online reporter, said the protest began on Tuesday after journalists were barred from posting reports on the website.
He blamed the appointment of a new board of directors for Qatar's Al-Balagh Foundation, which owns the website, and said they were meddling in editorial decisions.
The reporters had been given assurances by Qardawi after 240 reporters petitioned the elderly cleric, who heads the board of directors, Gafar said.
But "we were surprised that despite Qardawi's reassurances the Qatari foundation sent a lawyer to question the 240 workers, and by Qatar's control of publishing the website," he said.
Gafar said the protesters were demanding editorial independence, and if that were not possible, severance packages.
Other reporters, who asked for anonymity, said the new board wanted the site to conform to a rigid interpretation of Islam while avoiding politics, and they had threatened to close down the Egypt office.
Al-Balagh officials were not immediately available for comment.
Copyright 2010 AFP Global Edition
