Tag: journalists

Police crack down on pro-Gaza protest; Activists detained; Photographers assaulted

Posted on By 3arabawy

Police cracked down on the pro-Gaza protest at the Doctors’ Syndicate, rounding up a number of protesters (I still don’t have accurate figures, but they are more than 14). The police also assaulted photographers, including El-Badeel’s Ahmad Maarouf, confiscating his memory card after threatening to smash his camera.

The 12 October photographers’ protest against police brutality was aborted after the Interior Ministry approached the heads of the Photographers’ Association, begging them to cancel the protest in exchange for assurances from General Hamdi Abdel Kareem (the head of the Interior Ministry’s PR Department) that the photographers would not be touched during protests. Many photographers including myself were PISSED OFF by the cancellation, and knew these promises were bullshit.

Now my question to Mr. Amr Nabil and Mr. Hossam Diab the heads of the association: What do you think of the ongoing crackdown? Are you planning to do something about it? If not, then please leave the young photographers to take action and don’t stand in the way of those who are calling for a photographers’ strike.

DEMO IN SOLIDARITY WITH GAZA TODAY

Posted on By 3arabawy

Demo is planned in 20 mins to take place in front of the Press Syndicate in solidarity with Gaza.. at 5pm sharp…

We are racing against deadlines here at El-Badeel to include expanded Gaza coverage… We will be giving it three pages in tomorrow’s issue… Already journalists who finished their stories are now racing to the Press Syndicate to take part in the protests.

There’s no question which side are El-Badeel journalists on… WE ARE ALL GAZANS TODAY…!

UPDATE: 6pm: There are more than one thousand protesters in front of the syndicate. Clashes are taking place.

UPDATE 7pm: Some photos from the protest by Nasser Nouri…

UPDATE: 7:10pm: El-Badeel colleague who is at the demonstration now is saying the Muslim Brothers have left the Syndicate suddenly around 20 mins ago. The MBs withdrawal was coordinated with the police. The number of demonstrators, according to my colleague, has dropped from 2,000 to 1,000 now mostly leftists.

UPDATE: 7:30 More demonstrations are planned tomorrow in Cairo and the provinces.

UPDATE: 7:50pm: Elaf posted a UPI report saying the Egyptian regime has withdrawn its ambassador from Tel Aviv. We checked the state-owned MENA and Reuters, and there’s nothing about that.. The mobile of the spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry, Hossam Zaki, who is quoted in the report, is busy. But if there’s nothing about that on MENA, then the UPI report is bullshit!

More online than print journalists behind bars: CPJ

Posted on By 3arabawy

From AFP:

In a reflection of the digital age, more online journalists are jailed around the world than journalists from any other medium, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported on Thursday.
The New York-based media watchdog group, in its annual census of imprisoned journalists, said that as of Dec. 1, a total of 125 journalists were behind bars, two fewer than at the same point in 2007.
It said 56 of the imprisoned journalists were considered online journalists — bloggers, Web-based reporters, or online editors — surpassing the number of print journalists for the first time.
Print reporters, editors, and photographers are the next largest category of jailed journalists, with 53 cases, the CPJ said, adding that television and radio journalists and documentary filmmakers constitute the rest.

Thought Police - Cartoon by Carlos Latuff