Former head of Egyptian Press Syndicate Diaa Rashwan, who runs for the next election for the same position scheduled on 3 March, said that one of the candidates wants to cancel the technology allowance for journalists.

He asserted in an exclusive interview with Egypt Today, that this allowance was allocated by the Administrative courts in Alexandria and Cairo.

Rashwan added that all the candidates shoud agree on solving the syndicate's crises, and adjust its image in front of the community and the state.

He noted that the next election will be different and will be the most important in the history of the syndicate because of the major changes taking place in journalism and media, including the issuance of new legislation and the crises of national and private press institutions two years ago.

Rashwan told Egypt Today that the court's ruling of "allowance" was issued in his reign, adding that when he decided to run the election for the first time in 2009, he did not have anything to present to the General Assembly but just promises.

"When I announced running for the same office in 2013 and succeeded, I did not have any promises regarding the allowance, as I raised the value of the allowance for three times in a row until it reached EGP 1,380," Rashwan said.

In regard with the abolition of unfair dismissal in newspaper, he commented that "the complete abolition is difficult, but there are other proposals to reduce it, through the application of Article 48 which obliges press institutions to notify the syndicate before dismissing any journalist.

Egypt's Press Syndicate has decided to open the door for candidates to run for the chairman election and membership of the management council, for a period of 5 days from 11 to 15 February, 2017.