Happy New Year 2024. Today we say goodbye to 2023 and step into the new year, carrying with us numerous challenges, and arming ourselves with aspirations that the new year would transport us to horizons different than those under which we lived last year. We leave 2023 burdened with a heavy legacy of pain and frustration on account of conflicts and wars. The most recent of these wars is the one in Gaza where Israel, backed with diabolical support by the US and its western allies, commits atrocities against the unarmed Palestinian people in Gaza, throwing to the wind all human values and international law.
We leave 2023 amid a disastrous situation in Gaza, with no end in sight. That situation cast a dark shadow on Christmas celebrations in the Holy Land, especially in Bethlehem. The painful imprint of the war worked to eclipse the joy of the season; Churches in the Holy Land announced a halt to all usual festivities, and celebrated only through worship and Christmas services. The scene that was most moving was that of this year’s Christmas crèche: instead of the traditional nativity scene in the manger, Baby Jesus was depicted under the rubble generated by Israeli air strikes; thousands of Palestinian children were buried under the rubble.
This December, amid this desolate 2023 panorama, Watani bids its 65th year goodbye and steps into its 66th. Here, too, I say that Watani enters its new year carrying a legacy of numerous challenges, and armed with aspirations of a new year that would open new vistas full of hope. Before I go into the challenges ahead, let me reminisce on a few bright spots in which Watani was honoured by prestigious organisations for its lifetime achievements. Coincidentally, all the honours events came as 2023 prepared to conclude.
On 14 October, Coptic Orphans, a NGO in Fairfax, Virginia, which focuses on the education of orphaned or underprivileged children in Egypt, and which celebrated its 35 anniversary in 2023, honoured Watani’s achievements and awarded its Editor-in-Chief Youssef Sidhom with the “Leading by Example” award.
On 20 October, the Coptic Heritage Lovers Society, an Egyptian NGO focused on spotlighting and reviving Egyptian heritage, which celebrated 25 years on its foundation, honoured Watani for its decades-long enlightenment role and its commitment to spreading awareness of Coptic heritage. Samia Sidhom, Managing Editor of Watani International, received the award on behalf of the paper.
On 29 October, the Coptic Symphony Festival honoured Watani, its founder Antoun Sidhom, and his son and Editor-in-Chief of the paper Youssef Sidhom for playing a significant role as a Coptic- focused publication in the Egyptian media.
And on 3 December 2023, Pope Tawadros II celebrated the 2nd annual Coptic Press Day with a host of staff of the Coptic press, bestowing honours on individuals who offered significant contributions to publications issued by Copts over some 150 years. Watani had its fair share of honourees: Youssef Sidhom; Deputy Chief Editor Victor Salama; Samia Sidhom; and senior editors Nabil Adly, Salwa Rifaat, and Nadia Barsoum.
Watani thus enters its 66th year with its head raised high, but fully aware of the challenges ahead. First among these is to persist in publishing our printed paper under the adverse financial conditions of steep costs and diminishing revenue. Advertisements are down, circulation is down, and printing costs are spiralling.
If the Egyptian National Media Council and the Journalists’ Syndicate continue to boast of their insistence that privately owned papers should implement the government-recommended wage raises, while totally ignoring the losses these private papers stand to incur once they raise wages; if this happens then the only result to be expected is that print papers would have to close and make do with their online versions.
I do not cry over spilt milk. I am certain that privately-owned, non-endorsed, non-supported print papers are stumbling businesses, and that their closure is only a matter of time. This is not because the government is doing nothing to help them out, but because we live in an era that is fast moving from print to digital media. Anyone in the media field who wishes to book a seat on tomorrow’s media should invest in the e-platforms of the digital world. Watani made this realisation back in 2000 when it first embarked on its digital path, and continues its journey to the media of tomorrow.
Watani International
29 December 2023