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How we do what we do, and why
It would probably have been wiser not to wait until
we were three years into our project of rebuilding Business Monthly
to explain precisely what we are all about. But better late than
never, and this is my last chance.
People typically assume that Business Monthly exists to promote
Egyptian or Am-erican business interests or Egyptian or Amer-ican
government policy. These assumptions are wrong. The only goal of
this magazine is to provide thorough, fair and critical coverage
of Egypt’s business and policy environment. Many people will
find this difficult to swallow, but read on.
One obstacle to seeing Business Monthly as an impartial source of
news is the belief that our publisher, the American Chamber of Commerce
in Egypt, is somehow affiliated with or funded by the U.S. government.
This is not the case. AmCham does administer two projects paid for
by USAID – one to produce research on Egypt’s business
environment; the other to develop an Internet-based business development
network – and USAID paid for the bulk of the costs associated
with Am-Cham’s new headquarters. But the American Chamber of
Commerce in Egypt is an independent Egyptian organization with its
own priorities, and AmCham’s core activity – promoting
business between the U.S. and Egypt – is paid for by its members.
The second obstacle to seeing Business Monthly as an impartial source
of news is the belief that anything published by a business organization
will of necessity be promotional in nature. This, too, is incorrect.
Three years ago, AmCham wanted to begin circulating Business Monthly
to an audience beyond its membership. Art Director Ann Friend, Managing
Editor Carolyn Cawley (who has since left Egypt) and I argued that
this could only be done if the magazine drew a clearer line between
material that was intended to promote the chamber and material that
was intended to inform, and if AmCham al-lowed us to take an independent
editorial line. AmCham, to its credit, agreed.
The evidence of our editorial independence is in every magazine
we’ve published since. Matters relating to the Chamber have
been re-stricted to their own section, which is distinguished by
its titles and design. Stories in the rest of the magazine are written
with no re-gard to the affiliations of the companies they address
or the political sensibilities they might cross. We were, for instance,
the first Egyptian publication to seriously question the Toshka
project – in an article in March 1997 – and no one has
given more ink to the foreign exchange shortage than we have.
AmCham does review our articles, and three times in the past three
years has made the regrettable decision that an article couldn’t
be printed. But AmCham has never said that an article couldn’t
be written and has never de-fined any area as out of bounds. Our
editorial tone is established by the editor in chief with no guidance
from the top. If our tone was in-sufficiently leftist at times,
that wasn’t Am-Cham, it was me.
Our independence is well supported. Busi-ness Monthly is self-funding.
Not only does the magazine take no money from any governmental source,
including USAID, it also takes no money from AmCham itself.
Philosophically, we’re on strong ground as well. No one has
ever asked why we don’t do more to promote business in Egypt.
But if they had, we were always prepared to argue that what Egypt
needs most is more facts, not more praise. The key to promoting
business is promoting transparency, and an important component of
transparency is a fair and critical business press.
There are few, if any, local publications that understand business,
ask hard questions and accurately print what they find. AmCham wisely
realized that it could fill this need. Am-Cham officials haven’t
always been comfortable for the results, but they have, with a few
exceptions, always supported our efforts.
I am grateful that AmCham has tolerated this unusual experiment,
and I encourage it to maintain its support in the years ahead. I
also encourage our readers to see Business Monthly for what it is
– a reliable and impartial source of business news. Thanks
again for reading.
Andrew Dowell
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