Cairo is not a safe place to be for reporters trying to cover the civil unrest that’s been going on for days. Some have been arrested, others attacked.
A day after CNN’s Anderson Cooper was beaten by supporters of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Fox News Correspondent Greg Olaf Wiig, Palkot and his cameraman, were also attacked by a pro-Mubarak mob. They were beaten so badly that they had to be hospitalized, but were later released. Their story was relayed on-air by Fox news Channel’s John Roberts.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is condemning the attacks, charging that the Mubarak government is clearly responsible.
“The Egyptian government is employing a strategy of eliminating witnesses to their actions,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. “The government has resorted to blanket censorship, intimidation, and today a series of deliberate attacks on journalists carried out by pro-government mobs. 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.”
CPJ listed more than 30 incidents on its website of journalists being assaulted in Egypt.
