Salama Ahmed Salama, Editor in Chief of Al-Shorouk newspaper, died at the age of 80 on Wednesday evening in Cairo.

Salama was a regular columnist for Al-Ahram daily for many years; he also wrote for Weghat Nazr (Points of Views), and, more recently, wrote a column at Al-Shorouk titled Min Qareeb (Close By).

He was born in 1932 and graduated with a degree in philosophy from the Faculty of Humanities at Cairo University in 1953.

After graduation he began his journalism career as a foreign affairs reporter at the state-owned Akhbar El-Youm newspaper. He then worked in Germany as a correspondent from 1957 to 1964.

During the January 2011 uprising, Salama joined the committee of wise men, a group of prominent thinkers formed to mediate a settlement between protesters and the Mubarak regime.

Salama's final column for Al-Shorouk last week featured a critique of fundamentalist Islamic currents which attempt to curb personal freedoms by using force and was titled: The Road to Chaos.

He was married and had two children who live in Germany.