Egypt's Journalists Face Violence In Wake of Army Takeover
Following the coup that toppled former President Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s journalists have faced abuse at the hands of state security.
Since the Egyptian armed forces took power following the ouster of deposed President Mohammed Morsi on July 3, violations against journalists have been nonstop. These include violence during demonstrations and after the curfew imposed on Aug. 13, one day before the anti-coup protests were broken up in Rabia al-Adawiya and Nahda squares.
The Egyptian Syndicate of Journalists has not issued any statements on how many of its members have been subjected to harassment or abuse. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has also not released statistics regarding the total number of those arrested or assaulted since June 30. The CPJ did, however, issue a report on Aug. 19 documenting some of these violations. These violence has not been limited to preventing journalists from working, or smashing their cameras and computers, but has gone as far as killing them. According to the CPJ, of the 10 journalists killed in Egypt since 1992, five died following June 30 (with three of these deaths occurring during the breaking up of sit-ins on Aug. 14).
One example is the case of Ahmed Assem, of the Freedom and Justice newspaper, who was killed during the clashes between the army and the pro-Muslim Brotherhood protesters outside the offices of the Egyptian army in Cairo. His death was recorded on his own camera. Assem was filming the protests when one of the soldiers he was recording turned and shot him dead.
Tamer Abdel Raouf, a bureau head for Al-Ahram, was killed when soldiers fired at his car as he was passing through a security checkpoint during curfew.
