Egyptian Chronicles: Speaking about Professionalism and ethics in Press

Friday, February 13, 2009

Speaking about Professionalism and ethics in Press

As I expected the so-called Maadi killer case became the talk of the town or rather the talk of the Press in the last 24 hours in a very silly way.

First In Arabic “El-Safaah” means the Serial Killer/the slayer/the murderer..etc. Already the original attacker in Maadi “if there were one in the first place” did not kill any human being as far as we know so he could earn this infamous title of “Serial killer/El-Safaah”. I think from 2 years ago the people in Maadi really lived in horror in the first couple of weeks of the incident because of this stupid nickname !!

I open the newspapers yesterday and they were speaking about the killer’s family , the killer’s friend, the killer’s work, the killer’s neighbourhood…the killer’s what ever !!??

All the newspapers considered Mohamed Mahmoud as the real Maadi serial killer even without a trial , as soon as the interior ministry announced his arrest. What about the principle that the man is innocent till he is convicted !!!??

There is a big possibility that Mahmoud will turn to be another innocent but misfortunate poor sick person like his brother from Bani Mazaar.

Strangely last year I had enough from speaking about the professionalism and ethics of the local press in covering the murder of 6th October city aka “Nadine and Heba Murder”. I do not see professionalism or ethics in covering this story. The press issued its rule on the guy without even a trial !!

The interior Minister as far as I read demanded the files of the crime so he can read it ,despite what you think about him , the man is smart enough to know that the police is suffering from major fiascos in crimes like Bani Mazaar and 6th October murder crimes !! Of course this is beside the trust issue between police and the people in general, people do not trust the police anymore. I will not speak about the political security because Al Adly does what he believes is right but I am speaking about the social security. He is too smart to know that if the police fails this time ,it will be another big slap on his face.

To tell you the truth I do not believe that they have arrest the right guy in the first place, in fact I would have my doubts that that attacker had existed if it were not for the victims.