Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has condemned the many attacks, threats and other abuses against journalists in several provinces on November 20 and 26 in a continuation of the abuses being committed by the police with impunity since staggered polling in the ongoing Egyptian legislative elections began on November 8.
National Democratic Party sympathisers armed with knives fight supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood during a brawl at a voting station in the Raml district in Alexandria November 20, during the second round of the Egyptian parliamentary elections. The United States expressed 'real concern' over violence in Egypt's parliamentary elections and said it expected the Cairo government to ensure a vote free of intimidation (AFP/File/Cris Bouroncle)RSF urged Egyptian authorities to stop harassing journalists covering the elections. Egypt ranked 143 in RSF's Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2005. Conditions in Egypt have deteriorated sharply with attacks on several journalists and with President Hosni Mubarak failing to keep his promise, made in 2004, to decriminalise press offences.
Among the journalists attacked on November 20 was Los Angeles Times correspondent Hossam El-Hamalawy, who was beaten up by nine plainclothes security agents in the northern province of El-Behaira, and Mohamed Reda and Wael Mostafa, two reporters with the opposition weekly Afaq Arabeya.
Police detained photographer Hossam Fadl of independent daily Al Masry Al-Youm for seven hours in the eastern province of Suez on November 20, while reporter Abdel-Hafiz Saad of independent weekly Al-Fajr was arrested in the Nile Delta region of Bandar Tanta and taken to the Quhafa police station where he was severely beaten.
Among journalists attacked on November 26 was BBC reporter Mohammad Taha, who was hit with great force by a police officer. Security agents prevented Marwa Gadallah of Dubai Satellite Channel from entering a polling station. Mohamed Al-Bolok of the pan-Arab TV news station Al-Jazeera and his crew were briefly detained at Quhafa police station. Reuters correspondent Tom Perry was also taken to this police station, where the police confiscated his camera’s memory card.
Asmaa Mohamed Ahmed Hraiz of opposition weekly El-Karamah was kidnapped by the police outside a polling station in the district of Shoubra-El-Kheima north of Cairo on November 26. A policeman confiscated her camera and mobile phone and threatened to rape her. Two police women then beat her unconscious and left her for dead in a park in the centre of Cairo.
Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood throw rocks at National Democratic Party supporters during a brawl at a voting station in the Raml district in the port city of Alexandria, during the second round of the Egyptian parliamentary elections. Egypt's parliamentary polls claimed a second victim when supporters of a newly-elected MP seized backers of a losing candidate, tied them to the back of tractors and dragged them through the streets, police said. (AFP/File/Cris Bouroncle)Abdel-Baseer Hassan of the BBC was denied access to two polling stations in the Ghorbal district of Alexandria on November 26, while Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer Cris Bouroncle was prevented from working by policemen outside closed polling stations in the district of El-Mahmodeya, 200 km north of Cairo. A policeman outside a polling station in El-Mahalla, 100 km north of the capital threatened Associated Press (AP) correspondent Maggie Michael with violence and rape if she did leave at once.
Also on November 26, four journalists with the pro-government daily El-Akhbar, Afaf El-Sayed, Ahmed El-Dessouqi, Khaled Ghamal and Amir Lashin, were insulted, attacked and detained by police in the province of Qalyobeya.
Ahmad Mansur, of Al-Jazeera TV in Cairo and presenter of the programme "Bela hudud" (Without borders) on the same station, was brutally beaten by two men in front of their office in the Egyptian capital on November 9. After checking his identity, the two men beat him up, breaking his glasses and leaving him with a neck injury before fleeing. Mansur had been vocal in his criticism of the Egyptian head of state.
On November 13, Heba al-Qudsy, of the Arab-language daily Asharq al-Awsat, was beaten up by a group of men while covering a demonstration in Bulak Abu el-Ela, in the suburbs of Cairo. They also snatched his camera. Manar Khater of independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yum was prevented from covering incidents following voting irregularities in the El Dokki district in Giza Province. Dina Gamil, of the weekly Al-A’alam Al-Yum was also prevented from attending the count in the same province.
