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| Africa North |
| Egyptian journalist dies of gunshot wounds |
| 2011-02-05 |
| [Jerusalem Post Front Page] An Egyptian news hound who was shot during festivities a week ago died of his wounds Friday, his employer said, in the first reported death of a journalist in the chaos surrounding Egypt's anti-government protests. Ahmed Mohammed Mahmoud, 36, was taking photographs of fighting between protesters and security forces from the balcony of his home when he was shot Jan. 28, state-run newspaper Al-Ahram said on its website. Mahmoud worked for Al-Taawun, a newspaper put out by the Al-Ahram publishing house. He lived near central Tahrir Square, the focal point of protest rallies as well as festivities this week between large crowds of supporters and opponents of geriatric President Hosni Mubarak. The United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society described brazen assaults on news hounds that occurred during this week's violence as an attempt to stifle coverage of anti-government protests. President Barack B.O.Obama said attacks on news hounds, human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... workers and peaceful protesters in Egypt were "unacceptable." The Qatar-based television network Al-Jazeera said its offices in Cairo were set ablaze, along with the equipment inside it. The station announced later Friday that security forces nabbed its Cairo bureau chief Abdel-Fattah Fayed and a correspondent Ahmed Youssef. Mubarak supporters assaulted dozens of correspondents with virtual impunity in central Cairo this week with little intervention from nearby military units. There were fewer reports of such attacks on Friday, when anti-government protesters staged a mostly peaceful rally in Tahrir Square. The Egyptian government said reports of "an official policy against international media" were false, and that violence against journalists was unacceptable. "International media have been, and are always, welcome in Egypt," said the state-run Cairo Press Center, which oversees media accreditation. It said more than 1,000 international journalists were in the country. "Regrettably, international journalists have been endangered by the same conditions that have threatened all Egyptians in areas of the country where there have been major disturbances and a breakdown of security," the center said. It said the Ministry of Information had worked with authorities to speed the release of those journalists who were jugged. The White House said it was working with the US Embassy in Cairo on getting American journalists who have been beaten or jugged out of Egypt. Press secretary Minister of Information Robert Washington BobGibbs said the US government continues to receive disturbing reports about what he called a "very systematic targeting of journalists." |
| Posted by:Fred |