Exactly six months ago I wrote this post decrying the state of contemporary print journalism. Whilst I mainly blamed managements, journalists aren’t blameless. Because in recent years the standard of writing’s gradually slipped, and in many cases newspaper items have been no more than regurgitated media releases. So I was heartened and excited to read here that to celebrate the start of Hebrew Book Week, in last Tuesday’s edition of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, dozens of writers and poets replaced Haaretz's regular journalists and reported the day’s news – from the front-page headline to the back-page weather report – as they experienced it. What a wonderful idea. Hebrew Book Week’s indeed a celebration. Haaretz remarked: ‘…it serves as a platform for lively debates on the place of literature in society…’. Another Israeli newspaper, Yediot Aharonot, calls Hebrew Book Week ‘The most Israeli holiday…a holiday you just don’t miss. A holiday for publishers, editors, authors and poets, and, above all – a holiday for readers’. Hopefully Egypt’s 71-year-old Culture Minister Farouk Hosni can be added to this list of holidaymakers. In April 2008, Haaretz reports, he vowed to burn all Israeli books in Egypt’s libraries. Now he wants to be UNESCO director general. Here is his spin. And here is what his critics say. He deserves to fail. Dismally.
1 comment:
On 22 September, the vote was taken. And Hosni lost. There's some justice in the world. Including in the UN.
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