dagblog - Comments for "Shocking list of journalists detained, arrested, attacked or threatened in Egypt"

Surprise, suprise, some of

artappraiser — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 20:37:20 +0000

Surprise, suprise, some of the disastrous p.r. above must have been noted by the prime minister--some plausible denialibilty in order, especially after that NYT piece:

Journalists have 'full freedom' in Egypt, prime minister says
By the CNN Wire, Feb. 5, 2011

Egyptian PM: Arrests of journalists "not allowed"
By the CNN Wire Staff, Feb. 6, 2011

2 Detained Reporters Saw

artappraiser — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 20:31:22 +0000

In reply to Shocking list of journalists detained, arrested, attacked or threatened in Egypt

2 Detained Reporters Saw Secret Police’s Methods
By Souad Mekhennet and Nicholas Kulish, New York Times, Feb. 4, 2011

....our discomfort paled in comparison to the dull whacks and the screams of pain by Egyptian people that broke the stillness of the night. In one instance, between the cries of suffering, an officer said in Arabic, “You are talking to journalists? You are talking badly about your country?”

[....]

For one day, we were trapped in the brutal maze where Egyptians are lost for months or even years. Our detainment threw into haunting relief the abuses of security services, the police, the secret police and the intelligence service, and explained why they were at the forefront of complaints made by the protesters....

[....]

A plainclothes officer who said his name was Marwan gestured to us. “Come to the door,” he said, “and look out.”

We saw more than 20 people, Westerners and Egyptians, blindfolded and handcuffed. The room had been empty when we arrived the evening before.

“We could be treating you a lot worse,” he said in a flat tone, the facts speaking for themselves. Marwan said Egyptians were being held in the thousands. During the night we heard them being beaten, screaming after every blow...

``You Will Be Lynched,'' Egyptian Policeman Tells Reporters: First Person
By Maram Mazem, Bloomberg, Feb. 4, 2011

....it was a day I never dreamed could occur in my native city...

A policeman looked me in the eye and said: “You will be lynched today,” running his finger across his neck. Others spat on us. They hit the two men in our group in the face through the broken windows...

...They asked our nationality -- we were all Egyptians -- and accused us of being Palestinians, Americans and Iranians. And, they said, traitors to Egypt.....

Media wars
Sarah Carr, Inanities.org, Feb. 4, 2011

I didn’t go out at all today (Thursday) because as part of its campaign against the Tahrir protestors the regime has ordered the media to initiate a vile hate campaign against journalists and foreigners – which I am sort of both.....

Reporter dies after being shot in Egypt
CTV.ca News Staff, Feb. 4, 2011 8:37 PM ET

An Egyptian reporter shot earlier this week has died of his wounds, the first reported journalist death in 11 days of anti-government demonstrations.

State-run newspaper Al-Ahram says Ahmed Mohammed Mahmoud was "shot by a sniper" while he was taking photos from his balcony four days ago....

Head of Al Jazeera Cairo bureau arrested
Al Masry Al Joum, Feb. 5, 2011

Egyptian security have arrested the director of the Al Jazeera news office in Cairo, Abdel Fattah Fayed, and a reporter named Ahmed Youssef who was with him at the time, Al Jazeera news website has reported....

Egypt detains Al Jazeera journalist
Channel calls for immediate release of correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin, detained by Egyptian military
Al Jazeera, Feb. 6, 2011

....Ayman Mohyeldin's arrest by the army on Sunday prompted a call by the channel for his immediate release....

Nadia el-Awady, president of the World Federation of Science Journalists, told Al Jazeera that both foreign and Egyptian media workers were being specifically targeted during the protests.

Speaking about her experiences reporting from Tahrir Square, she said: "There were pro-Mubarak civilian-clothed people planted within the square that were trying to instigate other protesters to get angry.

"They tried to create this kind of mob mentality among protesters to get angry at the journalists."...

Egyptian media say foreign journalists have 'hidden agenda'
Committee to Protect Journalists, Feb. 5, 2011

..."While officials in the Mubarak government publicly pledge to uphold the rights of journalists, state media are blaming the press for the unrest," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. "In the current climate, such rhetoric is extremely dangerous, as it could be interpreted as a green light to violent forces that have engaged in a systematic campaign to intimidate journalists."....

Egyptians monitoring the broadcasts both inside and outside the country sent CPJ descriptions of what they were watching and transcribed quotes:....

Here is a roundup of new attacks on the press...

P.S. I would like to add that

artappraiser — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 01:24:54 +0000

In reply to It ain't no place for

P.S. I would like to add that I would never like to see your opinion become standard, that journalists should not be in dangerous zones. or that they should not report it when they are threatened or attacked or arrested in danger zones. It is precisely in these sort of situations that a report from an outsider is most useful.

If it wasn't the case until now, from now on it's going to become the case where we are not going to get any semblance of truth from Tweets from anonymous partisans in war zones. (Already with the Iranian protests you had people fallling for anti-regime tweets coming in English from Iranian expats in California claiming they were in Tehran.) Your going to have to know you're tweeter, and be able to trust him/her, they have to become journalists, they have to have a record that you know, whether it's a blog or a newspaper or a TV station.

It ain't no place for

artappraiser — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 19:43:50 +0000

In reply to Well what the hell did they

It ain't no place for westerners.

I suspect that

12% of the Egyptian workforce is one tribe that would disagree.

In any case, it stirkes me that you are unintentionally taking the side of the Mubarak regime--that the rest of the world should mind their own business and not show any interest in investigating what is going on there. And you might join with the regime because for whatever reason you have a dislike of western journalists or celebrity journalists. When in fact, a lot of people on that list are not celebrity journalists (and that part of this continuing story today is that Al Jazeera's Cairio office was destroyed.) But the fact that they did bother the celebrity journalists rather than kowtow to them as most dictators would do, shows how brazenly they don't care what the world thinks of what they do to their own people. And that's the real story here, that's what's shocking.

This story is not about defending foreign journalists whining about things, the story is the brazeness and stupidity of the regime. Because yes, like it or not, some of those bigger media people represent real power, the pen eventually being mightier than the sword. Those in the regime that are doing this are stupid, stupid, stupid, pennywise about a few days maybe, but very pound foolish, like jolly roger said upthread, apparently looking for a miracle.

Well what the hell did they

Beetlejuice — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:35:55 +0000

In reply to Shocking list of journalists detained, arrested, attacked or threatened in Egypt

Well what the hell did they expect? It's not like they're in New York City. Their lucky no one decided they wanted the rings on their fingers, because the easiest way to get them off is to cut the fingers off the hand. The authority that kept them all in check is no longer there so tribalism takes precedence...everyone will be out to get what they believe is their due and settle old scores. It ain't no place for westerners. Best to sit back, watch from afar and pass the popcorn as Egypt is being reborn.

White House condemns attacks

artappraiser — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 04:11:41 +0000

In reply to Shocking list of journalists detained, arrested, attacked or threatened in Egypt

White House condemns attacks on reporters in Egypt
By David Jackson, USA TODAY, Feb. 3

---------------

A.P. Video, Feb. 3: Clinton Decries Reporter Attacks in Egypt

Anderson Cooper (CNN) right

artappraiser — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 03:44:07 +0000

In reply to Shocking list of journalists detained, arrested, attacked or threatened in Egypt

Anderson Cooper (CNN) right now is interviewing the Egyptian state-run TV (Nile TV) anchorwoman, Shahira Amin, who has resigned. (See Reuters' Egyptian state TV anchor resigns over demo coverage.)

There is a part of me that is

Richard Day — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 03:35:21 +0000

In reply to Shocking list of journalists detained, arrested, attacked or threatened in Egypt

There is a part of me that is sooooooooooooooo very cruel.

Why should not journalists/reporters/kumquats be injured in the reality?

Just once in awhile?

See, I told you there was a part of me that is soooooooooo very cruel!!!

I admit I wondered if the

artappraiser — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 03:33:41 +0000

In reply to After UC-Davis Professor Noha

I admit I wondered if the army arrests mentioned in the NYTimes article and in other instances were actually for protection purposes, as they held them overnight and then let them go. It is chaos, as they have to wonder who really is a bad guy and who is not.

Human Rights Watch people have been targeted, too. Anyone whose job is to give publicity to what is going on.

That Google guy is still missing, has been for quite some time....seems to me Google doesn't want a lot of attention being given to that, for whatever reason.

A miracle is what they would

artappraiser — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 03:26:33 +0000

In reply to This is trippling down on a

A miracle is what they would need as doom is now guaranteed--this would be the one situation where the rule "all p.r. is good p.r." doesn't apply. Turning the press into an actual physical enemy, is not a wise move as to getting anything near a "fair" hearing.

On Anderson Cooper 360 right now, the State Dept. reporter said it's probably coming from the Egyptian Minister of the Interior, though she said P.J. Crowley at U.S. State wouldn't go that far in the briefing today, he did admit it is probably coming from relatively high up in the Egyptian government, for blackout purposes as to a crackdown

BTW, Cooper and team are broadcasting from an undisclosed hotel room (looks like surbuban Holiday Inn decor) and I saw similar on MSNBC a while ago. Kind of strange, takes the whole PoMo critique on the "on the scene" TV anchorperson to a whole new level--they could as well be in a Poughkeepsie Holiday Inn.