The Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR) stands in solidarity with the strike of BBC journalists in Cairo and announces its readiness to provide them the legal assistance in their protest against the discrimination against them in wages.

ECESR expresses its full solidarity with journalists and workers in the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Cairo Office, in their legitimate demands protesting the Administration’s neglect to solve their poor financial conditions crisis for more than a year.
On June 14, 2023, the journalists and workers at the BBC Office in Cairo announced a strike for 24 hours, with the continuation of what they descried as an obvious discrimination against them in the salary policy compared to their foreign counterparts in Cairo Office and the other BBC offices, including the Middle East such as Turkey and Lebanon.
Furthermore, protesters demanded to receive their salaries in dollars, not in the local currency (Egyptian Pound) which has recently devalued, and that the increase in salaries has to be calculated based on the real inflation rates. On the other hand, the administration has continued to reject these demands.
A delegation from Egypt Journalists Syndicate headed by Khaled Elbalshy, attended the strike headquarters to declare its solidarity with BBC workers and search for the available support ways. Elbalshy said that the BBC journalists had informed him earlier that the BBC Administration in London had neglected their legitimate demands for more than a year, in addition to practicing an obvious discrimination against them. Elbalshy affirmed that he had addressed British Association of Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) concerning the protesters’ demands.
The Head of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate stated that the strike occurred after a series of negotiations in which the Egyptian Syndicate was a party since last March, however they didn’t reach any solution. Elbalshy called on BBC to stop this intransigence against journalists and workers in the Cairo Office, together with amending the salary policy in alignment with the continuous devaluation of the Egyptian Pound. Moreover, apply an equal policy that don’t discriminate between them and their counterparts in the other BBC Offices in the capitals of a number of countries.
journalists and workers received a support messages from their colleagues in the other BBC offices, and a number of Egyptian and foreign journalists, in addition to the British Association of Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), expressing their solidarity with their legitimate demands.
The Egyptian Center expressed its support for the legitimate protest of the BBC journalists and workers in Cairo Office, and also stresses its readiness to provide all means of legal assistance to them at any time, stressing the necessity to stop these arbitrary and discriminatory measures against them. As well as achieving the principles of justice, and financial and moral equality for them as considered basic rights that aren’t subject to bargaining or negotiation.