Journalists beaten, websites blocked amid protests in Egypt

[EFerrari]

via Sharif Kouddous, DemocracyNow! producer and someone whose family in Egypt includes a journalist who was beaten and arrested by thugs.

Journalists beaten, websites blocked amid protests in Egypt

New York, January 26, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the violence against journalists covering demonstrations in Egypt. Plainclothes and uniformed security personnel have beaten at least 10 journalists between Tuesday and today and detained others. Egyptian authorities have also shut down the websites of two popular independent newspapers and a number of social media sites.

The protests began on Tuesday after an Internet campaign called for a national "Day of Anger" through anti-government protests, according to news reports. The demonstrations are the largest since the January 1977 bread riots.

"We call on Cairo to bring to an immediate end all forms of violence against the media, release all detained journalists, and lift online censorship," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator.

Egyptian authorities have blocked access to at least two websites of local online newspapers: Al-Dustour and El-Badil, local journalists told CPJ. The government has also blocked domestic access to social networking sites Twitter and Facebook, as well as Bambuser, a video-streaming website, according to multiple news reports, although sources on the ground tell CPJ that access to Facebook is intermittent. "It is an attempt to black out information and to stop the use of social media and communication to block those who are demanding democracy," Gamal Eid, executive director of the Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, told CPJ.

http://cpj.org/2011/01/journalists-beaten-websites-blocked-amid-protests.php