Al Dostor
Al Dostor (also Al-Dostour and Al-Dustour) (Arabic: الدستور, meaning "The Constitution") is an independent Arabic-language daily opposition newspaper. It was first published in 1995 as a weekly newspaper and was used as a platform to criticize the regime of President Mubarak. Founded and financed by businessman Essam Ismail Fahmy, Al Dostor’s license was revoked by the Ministry of Information after it released a statement threatening the lives of three Christian businessmen. It revived in 2005 – at a time coinciding with the calls for political reform in Egypt at the time and the first presidential elections in the country - and became a daily in 2007.
Besides Al Dostor, Essam Ismail Fahmy founded and owned a number of private newspapers including the Arts specialized Sawt Al Ummah, of which he was the Chairman. In 2010, he sold Al Dostor to businessmen Reda Edward, was a member of the Supreme Committee of the Wafd Party in 2010. He is a prominent businessman in the field of education and the management of international schools. He became the chairman of Al Dostor newspaper after he bought El Sayed El Badawi’s share in 2010. Fahmy played an important role in the experience of issuing private newspapers. He died in 2015.
After it was sold to El-Badawi, Al Dostor’s editorial policy changed and became closer to the state-owned newspapers in dealing with political affairs. As such, the relation between the editor-in-chief and prominent opposition journalist, Ibrahim Eissa, and the newspaper deteriorated. Known to be a vocal critic of the Mubarak regime, Eissa was sentenced in 2007 to two months in prison on charges of insulting Mubarak after he reported about the president's health. Mubarak later pardoned him. However, in 2010, Eissa was sacked from the Al Dostor.
At the beginning of January 2017, Reda Edward, the owner of Al Dostor newspaper, announced that it had been sold to a group of businessmen and a prominent media figure. Early 2017, Mohamed El-Baz, a journalist coming from El Fagr newspaper became editor-in-chief and chairman of the board. Previously the editorial adviser of El-Fagr newspaper, he also worked as the executive editor-in-chief of Al-Bawaba. El-Baz also teaches about media at a university. This is the reason why he could not become a member of the Journalists Syndicate. Recently, El-Baz began presenting a television program on Al-Mehwar TV channel owned by businessman Hassan Rateb. Mohamed El-Baz is known to be a supporter of President Sisi's policies. Al Dostor is currently focusing on supporting Sisi's authority in fighting terrorism and Islamic political groups.
Audience Share
*0.2
Ownership Type
Private
Geographic Coverage
National
Content Type
Paid
Media Companies / Groups
Al Dostor for Press, Publishing and Distribution
Ownership Structure
Al Dostor belongs to Al Dostor Company for Press, Publishing and Distribution, which was onwed by Reda Edward until beginning of 2017.
Voting Rights
Missing Data
Individual Owner
General Information
Founding Year
1995
Founder
Issam Ismail Fahmy, is an Egyptian businessman. He owned and founded a number of private newspapers including Al Dostor, Sawt Al Umma and Ain (specializing in art). Fahmi played an important role in the experience of issuing private newspapers in Egypt.
Ceo
Mohamed El-Baz, took over the responsibility of being El Dostor chairman & Editor-in-Chief at the beginning of 2017. Al Baz has previously worked for Al-Fajr newspaper with the well-known journalist Adel Hamouda where he worked as editing counselor. He
Editor-In-Chief
Mohamed El-Baz (Editor-in-Chief) Mohamed El-Asiri (Executive Editor-in-Chief)
Other Important People
El-Sayed El-Badawi,
is a well-known businessman, El Badawi also chairs the board of directors of Sigma Pharmaceutical Industries Company and founded Al Hayah TV channel in 2008.
Contact
Financial Information
Revenue (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)
Missing Data
Market Share
Missing Data
Further Information
Meta Data
The audience share is an estimate based on the data obtained by Masrawy. Moreover, according to the estimates of experts, whom the MOM project team met, the daily distribution of the newspaper does not exceed a thousand copies at the maximum.
Information about the current owner could not be retrieved from the MOM team at the time of the study (January 2019).
