Diaa Rashwan
Diaa Rashwan is an Egyptian journalist, politician and the current Chairman of the State Information Service. Rashwan graduated from Cairo University in 1981 with a Bachelor's degree in political science from Cairo University, he also received a Master's degree in the same field from the Paris based Sorbonne University in 1985. Rashwan began his career in Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in early 80s as a researcher and has been an expert scholar over there since then and many years later in 2011 he became the Director of the Center.
Rashwan was a dissident during the Mubarak era, and was a founding member of Kefaya movement which was the seed of the 2011 revolution. Rashwan is also a member of the board of trustees of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights since the 1980s. In 2010 he nominated himself in the parliamentary elections against the candidate of the ruling National Democratic Party contesting the seat of Armant, however he lost to the NDP candidate due to widespread rigging of the elections by Mubarak's government.
In March 2013 Rashwan was elected president of the Egyptian Press Syndicate however he failed to secure a reelection for a second term. Rashwan as chief of the Press Syndicate strongly opposed the government of President Mohamed Morsi and was an ardent supporter of the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état.
Rashwan was chosen to be appointed to the 50-member constitution committee during the second transitional period to draft Egypt's current constitution. The constitution was later approved by popular referendum in January 2014. In June 2017 Rashwan was appointed by President el-Sisi as Chairman of the State Information Service and later that year he was appointed as a member of the Supreme Council for Combating Terrorism and Extremism. In March 2019 Rashwan once again became president of the press syndicate after being elected by a landslide while retaining his position as senior government official which drew the criticism of some observers.
