{"id":17272,"date":"2025-10-08T17:25:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T15:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=17272"},"modified":"2026-10-24T15:03:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T13:03:36","slug":"alwafd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/alwafd\/","title":{"rendered":"Surviving on Scraps: Al-Wafd\u2019s Pay Dispute Exposes Egypt\u2019s Journalism Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I have spent thirty-four years in the profession, and my salary now does not exceed EGP 5,700.” With these words, journalist Neama Ezz El-Din began her conversation with Zawia3 about the reality of the salaries of journalists, men and women, at Al-Wafd newspaper, before the success of the <\/span>sit-in <\/span><\/a>that the journalists, men and women, recently staged inside the newspaper, with the support of the Journalists Syndicate council, and which lasted for days to demand a rise in their wages, which had not reached the minimum wage.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Al-Wafd newspaper sit-in to demand raising wages to the <\/span>minimum<\/span><\/a> wage, which stands at EGP 7,000, was not an exceptional event or one at odds with the reality of journalists in Egypt; rather, it was a mirror clearly reflecting the deeper crisis experienced by journalists in the various national, party and private press institutions, where wages fall to levels that are not enough to cover the basic needs of those working in the profession.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is what was confirmed by the results of the <\/span>survey <\/span><\/a>that the Journalists Syndicate launched during the Sixth General Conference of the Egyptian Press last December, which came to reveal clearly the scale of the crisis and the ordeal experienced by journalists, men and women, in Egypt. It was conducted on a sample of 1,568 journalists, both syndicate members and non-members, and revealed fundamental problems related to the wage structure and labour relations within the press community.<\/span><\/p>\n

The most prominent findings and challenges shown by the survey were the absence of wage regulations in more than half of press institutions, as it showed that 51.8% of institutions do not have clear regulations setting wages, in addition to the disregard for applying the minimum wage, as it indicated that 50.5% of institutions do not apply it at all, while a very small proportion, only 27.9%, apply it in full. The results of the survey came to highlight the absence of policies that respect journalists’ rights and guarantee them a decent life commensurate with the pressures of living and of the economy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Journalists’ Deteriorating Conditions: Until When?<\/b><\/h1>\n

Neama Ezz El-Din was speaking in a tone dominated by nostalgia as she recalled her beginnings at Al-Wafd newspaper, and she says that those days were completely different, as salaries were rewarding and professional conditions were stable. She explains: “Our salaries in that period were satisfactory, and the newspaper enjoyed large financial support from the donations collected by Fouad Serageddin Pasha, the founder of the newspaper, as the value of the deposit exceeded the EGP 90 million mark.”<\/span><\/p>\n

But this prosperity, as Ezz El-Din recounts, did not last long. Because of the management and the accumulation of wrong decisions, the newspaper’s resources began to erode little by little; the huge deposit, which had reached EGP 90 million, was squandered on election campaigns and the People’s Assemblies until it evaporated completely, and there was no longer any financial backing on which the newspaper could rely.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neama continues her conversation with Zawia3: “The crisis was not only financial, but also professional. The profession itself changed. In the past, print journalism was dominant, and the citizen would wait for the newspaper every morning to learn the news from it. The newspaper would be reserved at the kiosks before it arrived, and the reader felt a sense of belonging to it. Today, however, everything has changed with the dominance of the digital space and social media platforms.”<\/span><\/p>\n

In this context, the journalist and writer Khaled El-Balshy, head of the Journalists Syndicate, says in an interview with Zawia3 that “the negotiations that the syndicate conducted with the management of Al-Wafd newspaper were among the most important rounds of negotiation that the syndicate council has undertaken in the recent period, pointing out that the sit-in by Al-Wafd’s journalists represents a realistic picture that reflects the real conditions of journalists in the various Egyptian press institutions.” He notes that the results of the survey that the syndicate launched last December revealed clearly the scale of the suffering that journalists experience, and affirms that what is happening inside Al-Wafd is not an exceptional case, but a recurring model in a number of institutions that suffer from low wages and an absence of fairness in their financial structure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

El-Balshy adds: “In 2023 we began negotiating to improve the wages of journalists at Al-Wafd newspaper, as salaries at the time ranged between only EGP 1,400 and EGP 2,400. With continued pressure and negotiations, we managed to secure increases ranging between EGP 800 and EGP 2,000 in three stages, but the crisis was not radically resolved, so we returned to negotiating again for the application of the minimum wage in accordance with what the new Labour Law stipulated in the articles concerning the business sector under the name of ancillary services.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The head of the Journalists Syndicate believes that the economic and living conditions of journalists, men and women, require continuous pressure for the application of work mechanisms in all institutions in order to reform the conditions of journalists. He also believes that this matter overlaps with press freedom and freedom of expression, which must be an important part of our negotiations, in the media development plan that is being talked about, or through similar negotiations with the state and its various agencies.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Recommended reading:<\/b> Fragile Paper: An Existential Crisis for Egypt’s National Newspapers<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Where Is the Minimum Wage?<\/b><\/h1>\n

In the<\/span> report<\/span><\/a> “World Press Freedom Index 2025: The Economic Weakening of the Media Is One of the Main Threats to Press Freedom”, issued by the Reporters Without Borders network, which is concerned with defending freedom of expression around the world, the organisation explained that the Middle East and North Africa region, including Egypt, is still the most dangerous for the safety of journalists of all the regions of the world, with the exception of Qatar, as the situation in all the countries of the region ranges between “difficult” and “very serious”, while the organisation believes that “journalism in the Middle East and North Africa is caught between the hammer of repression by authoritarian regimes and the anvil of continuing economic instability”, as it described it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Egypt ranked 170th out of 180 countries on the press freedom and expression index<\/a> issued by the organisation “Reporters Without Borders”, the worst rank the country has recorded since 2014. Egypt’s ranking fell from 159th in 2014 to 170th in 2024, the same position it maintained in the 2025 ranking, which reflects the continued deterioration of press freedom conditions and the narrowing of spaces for expression in the country.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the economic context, the index report stated that the Egyptian media are going through a crisis that is partly due to the economic situation the country is experiencing. Since 2013, the government has tried to nationalise the press field by creating new media outlets financed and controlled by the executive authority, which has deeply destabilised the sector, in addition to the low salaries of journalists.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new Labour Law<\/a> No. 14 of 2025 included articles that oblige press institutions, like the rest of the state’s sectors, to apply the minimum wage set by the National Wages Council. According to Article (102) of the law, the council is obliged to set the minimum wage in proportion to the rising cost of living, while Article (104) stipulates that all establishments are obliged to implement those decisions and not to reduce them under any circumstances; however, most press institutions, including the national institutions, have not actually complied with these rules, according to press sources inside the national institutions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For its part, the Journalists Syndicate <\/span>called on<\/span><\/a> all newspapers and press institutions to commit immediately to applying the minimum wage, of EGP 7,000, to all the journalists working for them without any exception, in implementation of the new Labour Law, which came into force at the beginning of September.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last October, the syndicate sent an urgent letter, signed by Khaled El-Balshy, head of the Journalists Syndicate, and Gamal Abdel Rahim, the secretary general, to the chairs of the boards of directors and the editors-in-chief of Egyptian newspapers, in which it stressed the need to comply with what the law stipulates in this regard, following up on the previous letters that had been sent on this matter.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his letter, the head of the syndicate relied on the decision issued by the National Wages Council, chaired by the Minister of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation, which provides for raising the minimum wage in the private sector to EGP 7,000 as of 1 March 2025, stressing the need to apply the decision immediately to all journalists and workers in press institutions. El-Balshy also called on the institutions to settle the financial grades of journalists in line with their years of experience and periods of work, pointing to the growing living burdens that journalists face. At the same time, he called for studying the possibility of approving additional salary increases to help colleagues cope with rising inflation rates.<\/span><\/p>\n

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