Cairo: Veteran unionist and journalist Yehia Qalash has been elected the head of Egypt’s Press Syndicate after outrivalling outgoing chairman of the independent union Diaa Rashwan, an election commission confirmed Saturday.
Qallash, a writer in the state-run newspaper Al Jumhuria got 1,948 out of the votes cast in Friday’s polls against 1,079 for Rashwan, the panel said. Rashwan, who held the post for two years, is from the state-run flagship Al Ahram newspaper.
Qallash’s win ends Al Ahram monopoly on the union’s top post.
In post-victory remarks, Qallash, 60, promised to give “particular attention” to the issue of journalists detained while doing their job in recent months.
“My message to journalists is change,” he said. “The files of freedom, detainees and martyrs [among journalists] will top my agenda,” Qallash told his supporters in the Press Syndicate in central Cairo.
“I thank you because you send an important and refined message to the state that we are moving forward,” he added as his backers chanted “long live the struggle of journalists”.
Fourteen journalists have been killed in Egypt’s unrest since the 2011 uprising that forced long-time president Hosni Mubarak out of power, according to unofficial figures.
Rights groups say dozens have been arrested since the army’s 2013 removal of president of Mohammad Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Authorities say no detainee is in jail without charges.
Qallash, noted for his anti-government writings, was briefly arrested in the early days of the anti-Mubarak revolt for criticizing police’s siege of the Press Syndicate building, which used to be a hub for opponents of the former president. Qallash served as the union’s secretary-general for eight years.
He is a staunch advocate of free expression and improving work environment for journalists in Egypt.
Qallash had run for the union chairman’s post in the 2011 vote, which was won by Mamdouh Al Wali, an Al Ahram journalist known for sympathizing with the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
