Journalists under attack in Egypt, today is “Day of Leaving”

Though I haven’t been reporting on the pro-democracy protests in Egypt, there are two stories that I wanted to mention.

Today is the “Day of Leaving” in Egypt, with pro-democracy protesters taking to the streets of Cairo to demand Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek step down immediately, instead of waiting until September 2011, as Mubarek had announced earlier. According to reports, the U.S. government is pressing the Egyptian government for an immediate start to democratic transition, including a proposal for Mubarak to step down immediately and hand over power to a military-backed transition.

Also as newsworthy as the pro-democracy protests are the many stories coming out of Egypt about the government’s response to the protests, including its attempts to stifle reports of the protests from getting out to the rest of the world. The Egyptian government had previously shut down the country’s internet, and while the internet has since been restored, there are no shortage of accounts of journalists coming under attack by supporters of President Hosni Mubarak.

“The Egyptian government is employing a strategy of eliminating witnesses to their actions,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. “The government has resorted to blanket censorship, intimidation, and today a series of deliberate attacks on journalists carried out by pro-government mobs. The situation is frightening not only because our colleagues are suffering abuse but because when the press is kept from reporting, we lose an independent source of crucial information.”

Here’s just a partial list of some of the journalists who’ve come under attack by pro-Mubarek forces in Egypt since the demonstrations began:

  • Ahmed Bajano, an Al-Arabiya correspondent in Cairo, was beaten while covering a pro-Mubarak demonstration, according to news reports. Bajano and his camera crew were attacked in Mustafa Mahmoud Square by men in plainclothes. He suffered a concussion and was taken to a nearby hospital.
  • A group of men described as “plainclothes police” attacked the headquarters of the independent daily Al-Shorouk in Cairo today, the paper reported.
  • Men in plainclothes surrounded the office of Sawsan Abu Hussein, deputy editor of the Egyptian magazine October after she called in to a television program to report on violence against protesters, Abu Hussein said on Al-Jazeera. The magazine’s editor-in chief, Magdi al-Daqaq, a long time Mubarak supporter, was with the men, Abu Hussein told Al-Jazeera’s anchor on the air.
  • Police arrested four Israeli journalists for allegedly violating the curfew in Cairo and for entering the country on tourist visas, according to news reports.
  • Belgian journalist Maurice Sarfatti, who writes under the name Serge Dumont and works as a Middle East correspondent for the Brussels-based Le Soir, Geneva-based Le Temps, and French newspaper La Voix du Nord, was beaten and arrested today while he was on assignment in the Shubra neighborhood in central Cairo, according a statement from Le Soir.
  • CNN’s Anderson Cooper and his crew were attacked by pro-Mubarak supporters in Tahrir Square. “We were set upon by pro-Mubarak supporters punching us in the head, attacking my producer Marianne Fox and my cameraman as well as trying to grab his camera, trying to break his camera,” Cooper said on the air. “They didn’t want any pictures taken,” he added.
  • Two unnamed Associated Press correspondents were roughed up while covering a pro-Mubarak gathering, AP reported.
  • Danish media reported that Danish senior Middle East Correspondent Steffen Jensen was beaten today by pro-Mubarak supporters with clubs while reporting live on the phone to Danish TV2 News from Cairo. The attackers demanded his phone and passport.
  • The BBC reported that its correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes’ car was forced off the road in Cairo “by a group of angry men.” He has detained by the men, who handed him off to secret police agents who handcuffed and blindfolded him and an unnamed colleague and took them to an interrogation room. They were released after three hours.
  • Jon Bjorgvinsson, a correspondent for RUV, Iceland’s national broadcaster, but on assignment for Swiss television in Cairo, was attacked on Tuesday as he and a crew were filming.
  • Al-Jazeera continues to face pressure from the government-owned Nilesat satellite provider.
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5 thoughts on “Journalists under attack in Egypt, today is “Day of Leaving”

  1. This is genuinely scary with what is happening in Egypt but I do think it’s a new beginning and will make history. Part of me wished it would be a nice transition with no bloodshed but as soon as I saw the twitter of the Pro-Mubarak supporters coming in with weapons? I figured that wouldn’t be the case.

    The men and women who are protesting knew what they were getting into though: they knew their own lives were on the line when they began. I really wish there were somethings we could do, but this is their country to solve. I really hope for the best for their own safety.

  2. Really disgusting to see the deeds of egyptian govrnment n effort of US……
    Transition is a must to sbe free democratic nation.

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