Ibrahim Eissa

Ibrahim Eissa (إبراهيم عيسى) (born 9 November 1965) is an Egyptian journalist and TV personality best known for co-founding the popular Egyptian weekly Al-Dustour.

Ibrahim Eissa was born in November 1965 in Quesna in the Monufia Governorate in Egypt.

His father was an Arabic teacher.

At 11 years old, he published his first magazine, Al Haqiqa, which he arranged to print himself and distributed by hand to local schools and newsstands.

When he was 17, during his first year at the Cairo University School of Journalism, Eissa began working for the magazine Rose al-Yūsuf, becoming its youngest editorial secretary.

Although a state-run magazine, it was reputed for its openness to normally taboo topics as well as its leftist and nationalist opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood and the Gamaa Islamiyya.

However, when Eissa refused to support the 1990 Iraqi invasion, he was forced to resign within a year from his political editorship and assume the literary editor position.

A private publisher named Essam Fahmi Ismail approached Eissa's coworker Adel Hammouda about starting a journalistic enterprise of some kind but was rebuffed.

He then approached Eissa and the two created the weekly newspaper Al-Dustour under a foreign license in 1995.

The paper took a critical approach towards the Egyptian regime that was unique at the time, particularly in its focus on government corruption, quality of governance, and Egypt's relationship with Israel.

The paper contained contributions from all ends of the political and religious spectrum, including Marxists, Nationalists, and Nasserists.

As editor-in-chief, Ibrahim Eissa was a big part of the controversy that arose as a result.

The paper was also known for being colloquial, provocative, and illustrated with cartoons.

The paper was very influential in the evolution of Egyptian press—it became popular for other papers to "destourize" their pieces (the word "destourize" itself was used) by taking a stronger stance.

Its circulation reached around 150,000 copies per week.

Eissa stated that the reason for its popularity was how the paper spoke to its core audience, the youth.

The paper was shut down in February 1998 after it published a death threat from the Gamaa Islamiyya against three Coptic businessmen.

Prior to its shutdown, three issues had been confiscated for their controversial nature.

According to Eissa, the paper was shut down after a personal appeal to President Hosni Mubarak by Naguib Sawiris, who complained about the paper's publication of the death threat.

After Al-Dustour was shut down, Eissa tried nine times to open another newspaper.

Each of his attempts was rejected, under both party and foreign licenses, and for both political and cultural publications.

He tried to write under a pseudonym for the People's Democratic Party, but his efforts were met with government intervention.

Nevertheless, he slowly reintroduced himself as a writer in the non-political arena.

When Dream TV was started in 2001, Eissa was called on to host the current affairs show, Aala Al Qahwa (At the Cafe).

By 2003, the network was forced to drop Eissa due to the controversial nature of his program.

During this period Eissa also wrote the first of a number of novels, entitled Maqtal Al Rajul Al Kabeer (The Assassination of the Big Man).

None of his novels were received well by critics, and this one in particular was banned and confiscated by the government.

In 2004, Eissa was offered two jobs.

The first was as editor-in-chief of the El-Ghad Party's newspaper.

Ayman Nour, the party's leader at that time, wanted to hire Eissa because his popularity would build a larger base for the party.

At the same time, he was approached by Essam Fahmi about restarting Al-Dustour.

Although Eissa chose to work with the El-Ghad Party, the move was blocked when the security services made Mostafa Moussa fire Eissa during 2005 while Ayman Nour was in prison.

Eissa fell back on his second choice and became editor in chief at Al-Dustour.

In 2005, he took over Fahmi's other newspaper, Sawt Al-Umma, and made regular appearances on the TV show Min Awul Sadr.

In June 2006, Eissa was convicted of defaming Hosni Mubarak in a piece that described a lawyer's attempt to take the president and his family to court for corruption.

He was sentenced to a year in prison, alongside his lawyer Said Abdullah.

The ruling was overturned in February 2007, and Eissa instead had to pay a $3,950 fine.

The suit was filed on behalf of Mubarak by a private citizen and proceeded quickly, in contravention of Egyptian judicial norms.

On 5 December 2007, Eissa faced trial in Algalaa' Court after he published an article about Mubarak's health problems.

He is currently editor-in-chief of Al Tahrir, which he co-founded in July 2011.