Journalists staging a sit-in at Al-Bawaba News say they will launch a full hunger strike within 48 hours if management continues to stonewall their demands for fair pay and workplace protections.
In a Facebook statement posted Tuesday, the journalists said, “After exhausting every avenue of negotiation over recent weeks, and facing continued indifference to our professional and financial rights, the administration has left us no choice but to escalate.”
They announced that the hunger strike would begin “one by one,” unless the paper's management shows “serious and immediate commitment” to resolving the crisis—now in its 16th day.
“We did not choose this path lightly,” the statement continued. “But management’s empty statements seek only to offload blame onto the victims.”
A journalist participating in the sit-in told Al Manassa the action would be a “total hunger strike” that would not be lifted until demands are met.
“We hold the administration entirely responsible for any consequences,” the journalist said, requesting anonymity. “The safety and wellbeing of the strikers is now in the hands of those who continue to ignore our most basic rights.”
Editor-in-chief Dalia Abdelrahim told Al Manassa she was “saddened” by the threat to escalate and called the move “hasty and unnecessary.”
“Escalation should follow, not precede, the collapse of negotiations,” she said. “The syndicate head visited the sit-in recently; talks are still ongoing.”
Abdelrahim claimed such actions “distract both the syndicate and management from exploring real solutions.”
She insisted the paper had already offered five proposals and dismissed any allegations of obstinacy. She voiced hope that the syndicate and management could reach “a compromise acceptable to all.”
Abdelrahim added that Egypt’s ongoing economic crisis had affected “all media institutions, even government-owned ones,” and rejected what she described as “character assassinations” targeting the management. “This is just an attempt to settle old political scores with my father, Abdel Rahim Ali,” she said.
“I urge my colleagues to consider the wider picture and defend this institution. Don't let anyone gloat at our collapse. Remember how Abdel Rahim always stood by you—he never wronged a single journalist.”
On Monday, Al-Bawaba released a print edition bearing the words “final issue” on the cover—just one day after proposing what it called solutions to the Journalists Syndicate. Chief among them: a voluntary shutdown, coupled with severance packages including two months’ pay for each year of service and three months’ notice.
Journalists' Syndicate head Khaled Elbalshy rejected the plan, saying it violated Egyptian labor law, which bars closures or liquidations during active negotiations or industrial actions.
Later Tuesday, journalists scheduled an emergency meeting at the syndicate to develop a unified national strategy to protect newsroom workers and safeguard press freedom.
The sit-in began on Nov. 17 after repeated negotiation efforts failed, despite the involvement of the Journalists Syndicate. “We were met with silence and stonewalling,” the journalists expressed to Al Manassa.
In prior statements, they noted that wages had plummeted since 2018 and were slashed by over 60% since 2020—without a single increase or adjustment, despite years of appeals.
But their concerns go far beyond pay. “The work environment is inhumane,” they said.
“We have no health or social insurance, no promotion track—not even for those of us who’ve been here since 2012,” the statement read. “We’ve been denied bonuses, legal profit shares, and any form of annual raise.”
The Ministry of Labor has confirmed legal violations by the outlet, stating that Giza’s labor directorate conducted an inspection and filed a misdemeanor complaint to ensure workers are paid in accordance with Egyptian law.
On Monday, eleven Egyptian political parties and human rights organizations announced their support of the striking Al-Bawaba journalists after management illegally shuttered the paper.
In a joint statement, the signatories denounced what they described as the newspaper's “systematic sabotage” of journalists' rights under the cover of a financial crisis.
The solidarity statement signatories included the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, the Revolutionary Socialists, the Egyptian Socialist Party, and the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services, among others.
