A calm night on the airwaves brought us coverage of what to expect from today’s National Dialogue sessions and the latest from the House.
More responsibilities for the National Dialogue: Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly has forwarded the draft decision to establish the National Council for Education to the National Dialogue, to discuss it during today’s sessions on pre-university education. The National Council for Education will be responsible for setting policies for pre-university education and supervising their implementation, journalist and member of the dialogue’s board of trustees Emad El Din told Masa’a DMC’s Ramy Radwan (watch, runtime: 6:32). The dialogue’s recommendations regarding the council will go to the board of trustees, then President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, who will then relay them to the House of Representatives for discussions and a vote. Salah Fawzi, a professor of constitutional law, joined Radwan (watch, runtime: 8:12) to weigh in on the future of political parties.
Harassment penalties could soon get harsher: The House Legislative Committee and the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) yesterday gave their initial approval on proposed amendments to the penal code that could apply tougher penalties for those found guilty of harassment or assault. Society is ever changing and things that were once acceptable could now be seen as a form of harassment, hence the need for new regulations, NCHR head Moushira Khattab told Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 7:36), adding that the council “sees that fines are more effective than jail time” when it comes to harassment. “For the law to be successful we need to establish regulations protecting victims and witnesses,” she said. Meanwhile, criminal law professor Mohamed Darwish joined Masa’a DMC (watch, runtime: 6:16) and highlighted the need to have a clear definition of what constitutes harassment.
You’re going to have to pay more to have fun: The new package of taxes approved by the House Budgeting Committee yesterday will introduce new taxes on all things entertainment if passed by the House, that includes a 15% tax on foreign circus shows, a 20% tax on ice skating, a 20% tax on diving, committee deputy chairman Yasser Omar told Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 6:49). “These tax amendments don’t affect the simple citizen,” he said (watch, runtime: 2:50), implying that the proposed taxes and customs on foreign movie tickets, prawn, watches, kids toys, electric shaving machines, and much more will only affect the country’s wealthy. We have the details in this morning’s Legislation Watch, above.