Sepp Blatter, president of football world governing body FIFA, appears on TV as the photo was taken, hours before Qatar was declared the 2022 World Cup host. The original photo was taken by Hossam El-Hamalawy.
A pro-SCAF Facebook page posted a photo of six people sitting at computer screens in a couple of desk partitions, saying they were “paid followers of former presidential hopeful Mohamed ElBaradei, as well as other presidential candidates”.
Ahram Online stress the allegation is completely baseless.
As a matter of fact, the six people are Ahram Online reporters as the posted photo was taken in the portal’s office over a year ago by the socialist activist and journalist Hossam El-Hamalawy, who used to work for Ahram Online. The photo was taken 2 December 2010, a few hours before Sepp Blatter, FIFA president, announced that Qatar would host the 2022 World Cup.
El-Hamalawy is also known on the micro-blogging site Twitter as 3arabawy.
The Facebook page, named “Everything happens in Egypt moment by moment,” said in a comment on the photo: “These guys are the ones who curse the admin [of the page] … They are also followers of ElBaradei and other presidential candidates.
“They are getting paid by the candidates.”
From left is sports reporter Mahmoud Mohamed (looking in the direction of the camera), next to him is Salma Hussein, an editor of Ahram Online and the head of the economy section. Last on the same side is Marwa Hussein, an economy reporter. In the forefront on the right side is Salma El-Wardani, a former economy reporter. Next to her is Eslam Omar, a sports reporter, and finally Mohamed Nada, Ahram Online’s photo editor.
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