In the beginning, the challenge seemed enthralling. The job entailed direct and close interaction with senior editors of the print edition, besides sharing the newsroom.
It was like being thrust into a battlefield, the mission all the more difficult because I was the first and only woman in a managing editor position. Our working culture was alien to a society monopolized by men who deal with journalism as a strictly hierarchical field in which professional accountability is taken personally.
Integration between print and online was systematically challenged. But we had the management’s support, so we recruited more likeminded young journalists for the website while making sure to strike a gender balance. We developed an editorial policy for the site, introduced new innovative formats, and published opinion articles from young writers with fresh experiences and relevant analytical tools.
But the cruise did not last for long.
via Our ‘naive’ generation will bring down your media system
in next days, I will post here in my blog some links to the last issue of Egypt Independent, an English Language newspaper that has just been killed in the country of Nile River and Tahrir Square.
They offered a vision that too many times matched my own ideas, even when lately, it was clear that pressure over them was increasing, and with it, their editorial line suffered some lack of … independence.
Luckily this last issue went back to the usual clarividence I met once.
May these set of extracts be a respectful way to express my recognition for their task.
Al-Must'arib (the vocational Mossarab) 