Ehna Keda Webzine: Online Voice for Marginalized Groups in Egypt

Published: 5 June 2014

Country: Egypt

egypt2According to some sources, the first steps towards online journalism have been made a decade ago. Still the journalists themselves as well as media experts and academics discuss the future of journalism and whether the web portals can replace the newspapers.

But the Egyptian TV channel for Education, Nile Television, has gone a step further inviting the editors of the webzine supported by the Media Diversity Institute (MDI) to tell the story about the marginalized groups and how inclusive web can be.

The webzine supported by MDI, is Ehna Keda webzine (The Way We Are), edited and produced by the Egyptian students for all Egyptian and other citizens that might be interested in its content. Webzine’s editor in-chief Omar El Gebaly and deputy editor in-chief Ali Hamed, were interviewed by the Egyptian TV on the differences between traditional and online journalism.

“Online news promotes interactivity. It allows readers, editors and writers to interact with each other more frequently and directly”, El Gebaly said. “Online journalism not only reports stories in a more original matter, but also in a more thorough and continual one”, he added.

El Gebaly also elaborated that through Ehna Keda webzine and its social media integration with Egyptian youth especially via Facebook, marginalized voices can be heard and represented widely.

“The most challenging aspect in what we do is how to deliver messages. Both online and traditional journalism are unique and credible in their own way, yet it is the degree of that credibility that determines whether or not their message is trustworthy”, Hamed elaborated saying that in order to have reliable online news outlets, we need to raise awareness among journalists rather than demanding a kind of online censorship, which is impossible.

The idea of Ehna Keda webzine started back in November 2012 when MDI organized a workshop that included 15 students from various Egyptian universities that aimed at creating a portal for Egyptian youth to produce unbiased media content based on the concepts of diversity and inclusive journalism. The webzine Ehna Keda is part of the project “Inclusive Parliament: Building citizens’ participation in the political process in Egypt through better media, parliamentary and civil society interaction”, funded by the UK Embassy in Cairo.

Watch the full video of the TV programme here:

Media Diversity Institute has been training and supporting journalists in Egypt since 2007.