CAIRO, Oct 26: The Egyptian union of journalists condemned on Sunday “irresponsible and impudent”, remarks made by the US ambassador to Cairo who had criticized the country’s press and called for a boycott.

The Egyptian Journalists’ Union denounced “the irresponsible and impudent declarations of the ambassador, who accused the Egyptian press of being aggressive” toward Israel and of “falsifying the facts,” and said that David Welch’s remarks “constitute flagrant and inacceptable (sic) interference in the affairs of the Egyptian press.”

The union also announced its intention to request that the foreign ministry summon the ambassador to convey the protest to the ambassador, ask him to respect diplomatic standards and “remind him he is not the high commissioner of his country in Egypt.”

It called on “the organs of the press, the writers, the journalists and national forces not to deal with this ambassador, and to consider him persona non grata for reason of his opposition to freedom of the press and to the causes and interests of the Arab people.”

During a conference on October 20 at the American University in Cairo, Welch deplored what he called “regrettable articles” published in the Egyptian press, “proposing crazy conspiracy theories, or attacking the United States in very hostile terms.”

He took particular offence to an Egyptian newspaper he did not name which described the October 4 Palestinian suicide attack in Haifa as a “‘brave commando operation’ rather than a purely terrorist act, that’s both hostile and dishonest,” the ambassador said. The union named the paper in question as the governmental daily al-Gumhuriya.

It accused the US diplomat of wanting to “use freedom of expression solely to serve the aggressive policies of its administration, which is working to promote Zionist conspiracies against the countries of the region, and which considers (Israeli Prime Minister) Sharon’s daily massacres as self-defense.”—AFP