Violence Against Journalists amid Cairo Clashes

Pro-government supporters, top, clash anti-government protesters in Cairo's main square, Egypt, Feb. 2, 2011.

/ AP

As pro- and anti-government protesters clashed violently in Cairo Wednesday, some U.S. journalists found themselves the target of the unruly crowds.

CBS News reporters in Cairo said that it's not safe for journalists to be out in the crowds, and CBS News anchor Katie Couric reports via Twitter that protesters supporting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak are "very hostile" and wouldn't let crews shoot video.

(See Couric attempt to report from the street in the video below.)

CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan reported from a hotel in Alexandria that the military prevented CBS News from filming, and marched the camera crew back to its hotel at gunpoint.

"When our crew went out to film beauty shots early this morning with no idea the situation was now different, they were confronted by soldiers and plainclothes agents ... intimidated and bullied and in fact marched at gunpoint through the streets all the way back to our hotel," Logan said. "It was a very frightening experience, one that was repeated throughout the day for us."

Logan said that the crew is basically "trapped in our hotel room."

"We can go out without cameras, but even then we are being watched everywhere that we go and we are being confronted," she said. "We are definitely being prevented from telling the story. People are increasingly afraid to talk to us."

CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann provided a first-hand account about being attacked near a checkpoint close to Liberation Square with a photographer who was sprayed with mace:

"[The photographer] was ahead of me when we were suddenly attacked. His small camera was in his pocket, but we stood out as Americans. People began pushing and shoving both of us, especially him. We've been in these situations enough to know you just try to get out as quickly as you can. But we were trapped. From behind, I saw him get pushed and shoved, and then three separate people ran up to throw punches at him as he ducked to get out of the melee. He later told me he had also been maced.

"Suddenly both of us were being pushed and carried along by a wave of people, but these were the good guys. They were trying to get us out of harm's way. They formed a human shield around each of us, but kept us moving, away from the point where the guys throwing punches had suddenly pounced."

Strassmann and the photographer are both fine and back at a hotel.

Complete Coverage: Anger in the Arab World

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Philip J. Crowley tweeted, "We are concerned about detentions and attacks on news media in #Egypt. The civil society that Egypt wants to build includes a free press."

Other media outlets reported having problems. CNN's Anderson Cooper tweeted that he was kicked and punched repeatedly.

"Had to escape. Safe now," he wrote.

ABC's Christiane Amanpour also had trouble covering the story. Thugs surrounded Amanpour and her crew shouting "We hate Americans" and "Go to hell," she said, according to the Associated Press.

When Amanpour and her crew decided to leave, their car was surrounded by a group that began rocking and pounding on the car. Someone threw a rock that shattered the windshield but the ABC team was not hurt.

Live Blog: Day 9

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof tweeted "Pro-#Mubarak thugs at #Tahrir v hostile to journalists. Several journalists attacked. I was threatened but am fine."

Kristof wrote that pro-Mubarak crowds were "armed with machetes, straight-razors and clubs, very menacing."

"It's difficult to know what is happening, and I'm only one observer, but to me these seem to be organized thugs sent in to crack heads, chase out journalists, intimidate the pro-democracy forces and perhaps create a pretext for an even harsher crackdown," Kristof blogged for The New York Times.

The Associated Press reports that two of its correspondents were roughed up, and that a Belgian journalist was "beaten, detained and accused of spying by unidentified people in civilian clothes."

Four Israeli journalists were arrested by Egyptian military police in Cairo, the Jerusalem Post reported. Three of those arrested work for Channel 2 and the fourth is from Nazareth.

The Jerusalem Post also reported that two Swedish reporters were detained and accused of being Mossad spies.The soldiers reportedly attacked the reporters, spit in their faces and threatened to kill them.

Al Jazeera's producer in Cairo is reporting that the Hilton Hotel staff are checking all the rooms for cameras and then the security is confiscating them. Hamish Macdonald, a correspondent for Ten Network in Australia tweeted that their hotel security had told them no cameras were allowed to film on hotel balconies.

Pan-Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera had earlier called for help from Egyptian bloggers and others after their Cairo office was shut down Sunday by authorities who complained its round-the-clock coverage was slanted toward protesters and could encourage more unrest.

"Protesters are hunting down Al Jazeera journos," tweeted Abbas Al Lawati of Gulf News in Dubai. "I keep having to clarify that I'm not one of them."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the U.S. is "deeply concerned" about the attacks on the media and peaceful demonstrators.

"We repeat our strong call for restraint," Gibbs said.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said that the Egyptian government was "employing a strategy of eliminating witnesses to their actions," and kept an updated list of journalists who had come under physical assault. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said "infiltrated policemen" had joined the assaults. The Associated Press reports that the Egyptian government denied the allegations.

"The government has resorted to blanket censorship, intimidation, and today a series of deliberate attacks on journalists carried out by pro-government mobs," said CPJ's Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Mohamed Abdel Dayem. "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."

Government spokesman Magdy Rady said the assertion of state involvement in street clashes and attacks on reporters was a "fiction," and that the government welcomed objective coverage.

"It would help our purpose to have it as transparent as possible. We need your help," Rady said in an interview with The Associated Press. However, he said some media were not impartial and were "taking sides against Egypt."

[jdoomonyou]

The world owes an immense debt of gratitude to the demonstrators who beat the crap out of the Fox news journalists. Those demonstrators who have bravely covered the Fox news journalists with bumps and bruises have accomplished what most of us could only dream of. I only wish the regime in Iran had allowed demonstrators to beat the crap out of the Fox news journalists, rather then just banning the Fox news journalists. Beating, jailing and gunning down the Fox news journalists should be a goal for all demonstrators where ever they might be found.

[lami987]

There are a few journalists used words like thugs, mobs to describe the demonstrators. Some even went further claiming without proof that those pro-government demonstrators are paid by government officials to demonstrate. So don't point the fingers at demonstrators but at those poorly trained journalists. Those kinds of words shouldn't have come out from any journalist. Journalists can learn a lot from Egyptian army who has been perfectly neutral so far. Unfortunately they couldn't keep the two sides apart.

[WeHappyFew]

You need to understand what is actually going on here. The US are helping the 'democracy movement' and the Egyptian army (giving them a further $1.9bn for 'US Egypt co-operation training' in 2010) as they do not wish Egypt to fall into the hands of extremists (imminent according to intelligence sources). This has to be handled carefully . Although the majority of Egyptians are moderate they are definitely not pro-American interference.

[cybertechguy91]

I am angry of supporters of the Egyptian president and American media-hating critics and skeptics launch an attack on the media! Where is Howard Kurtz when you need one?! He is the well-known media critic, so I want him to help prove that the media isn't too much of Big Brother and I want him to save the members of the media for their safety!

[mnguyen4]

My advice to foreign journalists covering the events in Egypt is to be very careful. Those thugs who are intimidating you are acting like the right-wing death squads operating in Central America during the 1980's period of civil strife. They are out of uniform government officials whose job is to create terror and fear. Because of this fact, foreign journalists' lives are even in greater danger now than when they were covering riot in Iran or during the invasion of Iraq a few years ago.

We know that the Mubarak regime effectively shut down the Internet completely in Egypt a few days ago. In spite of it, Egyptians were pouring out from everywhere. Protesters were also receiving worldwide support.

For now, the Egyptian army is still in a state of neutrality. So go seek their protection if thugs come over to threaten you. The US spends a lot of money to pay and equip that army, so the former still has some leverage. The Obama administration needs to send a clear message to Hosni Mubarak about a quick exile to a country like Saudi Arabia. The US had done such things before, like in Haiti. Unpopular leaders don't stay because they want to bring order and stability for their beloved people. Most dictators want time so that they bring their country loot with them to their exiled destiny.

[RealiteBites]

If this guy controls the army, and the electoral process, and he doesn't want to go, then the only way to get him to go would be to make him?

Wasn't there stuff in the Wikileaks cables about the Saudis wanting to 'take out' the leaders of Iran or something like that? Is that how these things work? It sounds like something out a movie, but that's how things really get done in real life, then I guess if Washington really wanted Mubarak gone, then maybe they'd try to send in some covert forces or something, wouldn't they?

But do they really want Mubarak gone?

What a crazy scene - so scary ... I'm so scared for these journalists, like I totally admire what they're trying to do, get to the story even in the face of tremendous danger to themselves, but I don't know if it's worth it ... I don't want to see anybody hurt ...

[RealiteBites]

Scary!!! :0 Everybody please be careful!!!

Everybody calls Egypt a 'moderate' islamic state, but I guess they only mean that in terms of the fact that their ruling head of state doesn't hate Westerners.

But on that Democracy Index compiled by The Economist, Egypt ranks at 138 out of 167 countries in terms of their level of democratization ... that's two below China! Seventeen below Cuba!!! I mean like in terms of their embrace of democratic principles, apparently Egypt is not moderate at all.

[robbyr2]

When you take sides in a revolution in another country, you put a target on yourself. Duh.

[Molly-Pchr]

Serves them right, running over there like fools, for a "story"...phooey. When they go there and take sides as many did this week, and as they usually do, they become part of the story instead of reporting the story. So they will get what they deserve. And what kind of naive journalist thinks demonstrations in a primarily Islamic country will not turn violent when they are talking Sharia law and democracy? The two cannot co-exist.

[WeHappyFew]

Turkey. Islamic population . Secular democracy. This is not the Muslim Brotherhood V democracy movement (a fight for another day) it is a dictator refusing to loosen his grip on power.
Who are we to say that the the Egyptians must forfeit their right to fight for democracy in order that the US may preserve its own perceived security with a puppet dictator.

[smartasss1]

The Egyptian government is ejecting foreign journalists. That means there will be blood soon.

[WeHappyFew]

They are going to loot the museum of Archeology. Orchestrated under the cloak of the riot. Oh Well I guess some oligarch will enjoy the death mask of Tutankhamun on the mantle.

[samXXkiley]

coucou,
le comportement des autorit?s ?gyptiennes vis ? vis des m?dias en g?n?ral,
certains organismes en particulier, est un comportement honteux est inacceptable, emp?cher les uns de transmettre et maltraiter les autres,
d?montre que la libert? de la presse, la libert? de l'expression laissent ? d?sirer en Egypte,
c'est l?, une des causes du malaise social que vit l'Egypte
====================

the behavior of the Egyptian authorities towards the media in general,
some agencies in particular, is a shameful behavior is unacceptable
prevent certain media to transmit and mistreat others,
demonstrates that the freedom of the press, freedom of expression are poor,
this is one of the causes of social unrest that saw Egypt
I will even say the principal cause
au revoir