Journalists associations
The Egyptian Press Syndicate is the official body governing anyone working in print media. It was established in 1963 and is controlled by the Egyptian government. According to latest figures, there are 8,951 registered members of which 6,127 are males and 2,824 females. Around 642 members are under training and have the right to apply for membership (after one year of training if the journalist is a Journalism school graduate, and after two years if he/she is a non-journalism school graduate).
The Egyptian Press Syndicate does not operate independent of the government. Many journalists agree that the syndicate still lacks convenient services for members, and that there is a decline in the syndicate work. Yet others state that its role is now stronger than at the beginning of its association. Although the syndicate’s role is to protect journalists’ rights, it only takes action when the journalist is a member of the syndicate; non members are not given full support from the syndicate, which always brings hot debate.
As for the Egyptian Broadcast Syndicate, it was established in 2017 after many calls of professionals who are working at the broadcasting sector to have syndicate that would preserve their rights. The syndicate states that only Egyptian media professional will have the right of membership. The Union defines the broadcaster as "the contact person who carries out the communication process and creates the content of the media message and works in an organisation that publishes these messages to the public." Included under the definition are: media practitioners, translators, illustrators, debuggers, collectors, archivists, reporters, delegates (on the condition of their high qualification and fixed contracts with public, private or cooperative entities). Depending on the professional development, the General Assembly may add other professions related to the field of work to the media professions. A broadcast code of ethics was also developed which Ethics is consistent with many of the charters adopted by media groups and/or media syndicate in many countries around the world. There are, however, certain items that need to be addressed and reviewed for the purpose of amending them so that the Code of Ethics is more consistent with international standards of public information practice.