The Committee to Protect Journalists says that Egyptian police are targeting journalists. In addition to what it calls the unprecedented measures to block media coverage, which CPJ condemned, it said Jan. 28 that "Security forces [Friday] continued violent physical attacks on journalists.
Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, said on CPJ's Web site that "Security forces are also becoming increasingly violent against both demonstrators and journalists."
Among the attacks and intimidation CPJ has been collecting from various sources:
Sources at the BBC Arabic service said that correspondent Asadallah al-Sawi was injured by security forces and was taken to a hospital.
CNN journalists were threatened and had equipment confiscated while covering the protests.
Al Jazeera journalist Ahmad Mansour was detained and others prevented from entering the country.
Al Jazeera has called for an end to the interference with its newsgathering, saying its Cairo bureau had its phone lines cut and its main Arabic news channel interfered with.
"We call upon the Egyptian authorities to uphold the right of the media to report news freely. There should be no impediments or restrictions in front of a free press," said Ayman Jaballah, managing director of Al Jazeera Mubasher, in a statement.
