DSE: Freedom of the press takes a blow

Freedom of the press takes a blow

By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 12, 2006

CAIRO: Egyptian police beat up and temporarily held an Al-Jazeera cameraman, among others, while he was covering a protest outside the Judges Club on Thursday.
“A group of police thugs handpicked him from the crowd of journalists, around five or six thugs, and surrounded him,” says Lina Al-Ghadban, Al-Jazeera Cairo correspondent who was present at the scene. “He was badly beaten, punched several times in the face.”
According to Al-Ghadban, the cameraman, Yasser Mohammed, was standing in a group of other journalists and camera crews on the opposite side of the street from where the club was located.
The journalists were not allowed to come close to the gates, according to eyewitnesses, behind which hundreds of judges convened to protest the case of two of their colleagues facing disciplinary hearings for outlining what they called scam and thuggery in last year’s violence-marred presidential elections. The judges were harshly critical of the regime, chanting against Mubarak, and calling the government “tyrants.”
As the anger and the number of protestors mounted, riot police, who cordoned off the club, allegedly treated the journalists more aggressively. Cameramen especially, were pushed away from the club gates whenever they tried to enter.
“It really seemed that they had purposely targeted the Al-Jazeera cameraman,” says Al-Ghadban. After Mohammed was beaten, police detained him for over 20 minutes; policemen shattered his camera and confiscated the tape. Al-Ghadban convinced the police to release her cameraman, but was denied even the broken camera.
“I was not personally harassed … but they shouted at me: ‘Do you want to go home or not,’ which of course was a warning.”
Meanwhile, according to the correspondent, Mohammed sustained minor scars due to the beating. “They were very smart. They meant to beat him in such a way so as not to leave clear marks or scars. His face of course hurts and is swollen, but he is not bleeding,” says Al-Ghadban.
No other injuries were reported, although Al-Ghadban claims that others were later targeted. “I heard that several other journalists were beaten up and two Qatari journalists were arrested. So it seems that they did not want anyone to witness or record the protests, perhaps not just Al-Jazeera.”
Political, human rights activists and Muslim Brotherhood members were also present at the demonstration in support of the judges. According to BBC News, dozens of Muslim Brotherhood members were rounded up during the clashes.
This incident comes less than two weeks after Al-Jazeera Cairo Bureau Chief Hussein Abdel-Ghani was arrested, interrogated for around 40 hours and charged with propagating false information while covering the recent Dahab bombings, which killed 21 people and wounded 85.
Abdel-Ghani was released on LE 10,000 bail but is still on trial. Following Abdel-Ghani’s arrest, Al-Jazeera told Associated Press that his case is "a flagrant violation of freedom of opinion in Egypt and an insult to a journalist whose only fault was trying to ensure the free flow of information."
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1468