Several journalists covering anti-war demonstrations attacked by the police

Several journalists were attacked by the police during the repression of anti-war demonstrations in Cairo on 20, 21 and 22 March, which saw approximately 800 people arrested. 'We call on the Egyptian authorities to allow Egyptian and foreign journalists to exercise their job. The events experienced by Egypt today are particularly worrisome. Journalists should be in a position to cover them without fearing for their safety', said Robert Ménard, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders On 20 March, at the end of the afternoon, while the police were charging at demonstrators in front of the American university (downtown Cairo), several journalists covering the scuffles were also pursued. A journalist working for the State television had to flee to the 7th floor of a building to escape the charging police. His cameraman was injured, probably by a truncheon blow (and had to receive several stitches) and his camera was damaged. On 21 March, the day of the largest downtown demonstration, a cameraman from the Qatari Al Jazeera satellite channel was hit by police entering the premises of the lawyer's society which was holding a meeting. Lena El Ghadban, the channel's journalist preferred to hand over her bag and her camera rather than also be hit. Other journalists were also said to have been attacked on this day marked by the severest repression. On 22 March, at the beginning of the afternoon, Hossam El Hamalawy, a stringer at the LA Times, was arrested by five plainclothes policemen while leaving a restaurant on Tahrir square in downtown Cairo where he was having lunch with two colleagues. Although he told them he was a journalist, the men confiscated his press card, the battery of his mobile phone and his ID card. He was then taken, with youths rounded up during the day, to the Gamaleya police station. There, their finger prints and photos were taken and the words 'dangerous criminals' were written on these. In the evening, he was transferred to the State Security headquarters where he was blindfolded. An officer who had interrogated him said he did not know he was a journalist. He told him it was a 'mistake'. Yet the journalist had to sign a paper saying he would not participate in 'any riot destroying public or private property.' The journalist was released at around two in the morning. During a demonstration on 20 March in Cairo he had been violently hit with wooden truncheons by members of the police.