Members of international media and human rights groups arrested, attacked and beaten in intimidation campaign
Dozens of foreign journalists were arrested, attacked and beaten today as the Egyptian government and its supporters embarked on what the US state department called a "concerted campaign to intimidate" the international media.
A number of human rights workers also fell victim to crowd violence, while police raided the offices of two groups in Cairo – the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre and the Centre for Economic and Social Rights – and arrested observers. Amnesty International said one of its staff was detained at the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre with a colleague from Human Rights Watch.
The Egyptian interior ministry arrested more than 20 foreign journalists in Cairo – including the Washington Post's bureau chief and a photographer – while al-Jazeera said three of its journalists had been detained.
In Egypt's second city, Alexandria, hostility to western journalists escalated as angry mobs accused reporters of being Israeli spies and demanded they leave.
According to locals, Egypt's national television channel had warned viewers to beware of Israeli agents masquerading as journalists and seeking to damage the country's image and national interest.
On the streets, it was impossible to interview protesters without a crowd of people gathering, shouting accusations and jabbing fingers. One western TV crew was threatened in a residential area away from the scene of protests, with angry residents beating the roof of their car and refusing to allow the team to enter an apartment building. Local Egyptians acting as fixers to western journalists were also accused of being Zionists.
A hotel in central Alexandria being used as a base by reporters has been threatened at least twice in the past week by angry protesters. Journalists were warned against filming or taking photographs from hotel balconies of protests below.
The antipathy to the media appeared to extend to both opponents and supporters of the regime. The wave of violence and arrests prompted the US state department spokesman PJ Crowley to write on Twitter: "There is a concerted campaign to intimidate international journalists in Cairo and interfere with their reporting. We condemn such actions."
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs described the "systematic targeting" of journalists in Egypt as unacceptable, and called for those detained to be freed.
The leaders of France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain said in a joint statement that the "attacks against journalists are completely unacceptable".
Foreign photographers witnessed a string of attacks by supporters of Hosni Mubarak near Cairo's Tahrir Square, the scene of battles between the president's backers and protesters demanding he step down after nearly 30 years in power.
The Greek daily newspaper Kathimerini said its correspondent in the city was treated in hospital for a stab wound to the leg after being attacked by pro-Mubarak demonstrators in Tahrir Square. A Greek photographer was also beaten.
An Associated Press reporter saw eight foreign journalists detained by the military near the prime minister's office.
Turkey's state broadcaster TRT, said its Egypt correspondent was beaten by a group of around 15 pro-Mubarak demonstrators with batons and lost a tooth in the attack. His camera, money and mobile phone were stolen. Three other Turkish journalists were also stopped and roughed up near Tahrir Square, TRT said.
A reporter for Turkey's Fox TV, his Egyptian cameraman and their driver were abducted by men with knives while filming protests yesterday, but Egyptian police rescued them, according to Anatolia, a Turkish news agency.
Polish television TVP said two of its crews were detained in Cairo, while the Arabic-language satellite channel al-Arabiya pleaded on a news scroll for the army to protect its offices and journalists.
The Egyptian government has accused media outlets of being sympathetic to protesters who want Mubarak to resign now rather than complete his term. Yesterday, government spokesman Magdy Rady described allegations of state involvement in clashes and attacks on reporters as a "fiction," adding that the government welcomed objective coverage.
"It would help our purpose to have it as transparent as possible. We need your help," Rady said. However, he claimed that some in the media were not impartial and were "taking sides against Egypt."
Egyptian authorities shut al-Jazeera's office on Sunday, complaining that its round-the-clock coverage was slanted toward protesters and could encourage more unrest.
There were reported assaults on journalists for CNN, CBS, the BBC, Danish TV2 News, Swiss television and Belgium's Le Soir newspaper, among other organisations. Two Associated Press correspondents were also set upon.A correspondent and a cameraman working for Russia's Zvezda television channel were detained by men in plainclothes and held overnight on Tuesday.
Reporter Jean-Francois Lepine of Canada's CBC all-French RDI network said that he and a cameraman were surrounded by a mob that beat them until they were rescued by the Egyptian army.
"Without them, we probably would have been beaten to death," he said.
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