(RSF/IFEX) – On 7 April 2003, RSF protested against the latest police attacks on journalists covering anti-war demonstrations in Cairo. “The police have once again targeted journalists,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. “We are very concerned and again urge Interior Minister Habib al-Adeli to ensure that journalists, be they Egyptians or foreigners, are allowed to […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 7 April 2003, RSF protested against the latest police attacks on journalists covering anti-war demonstrations in Cairo.
“The police have once again targeted journalists,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. “We are very concerned and again urge Interior Minister Habib al-Adeli to ensure that journalists, be they Egyptians or foreigners, are allowed to do their job freely and cover protests without having to fear for their own safety.”
As they were dispersing would-be demonstrators and making arrests on 4 April, over a dozen plainclothes police officers seized Philip Ide, of the “Mail on Sunday” (a supplement of the British newspaper “Daily Mail”), as he was leaving a cafe after speaking with relatives of a recently-arrested activist. He was thrown to the ground, forcibly held down, and his camera was seized. He later went to the Khalifa district police station to retrieve his camera but his request was turned down.
Rhoda Metcalfe, a Canadian freelancer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Radio Netherlands, was also roughed up by plainclothes officers. They also seized her tape recorder. Two young journalists from the local French-language weekly newspaper “Al Ahram Hebdo” were also physically assaulted. When they went to the police station to complain about the incident, they were advised not to do so if they wanted to avoid problems.
Four plainclothes police officers set on Laura-Julie Perrault, a reporter for the Canadian daily “La Presse”, when she refused to leave the security area. Her fixer, a journalist with “Al Ahram Hebdo”, was threatened with arrest. Half an hour later, when they were in a nearby street, a police officer confiscated the fixer’s press card, emptied her bag on the ground and took her papers, which have not been returned.
RSF recalls that police officers physically assaulted and threatened at least five journalists during anti-war protests in Cairo on 20, 21 and 22 March (see IFEX alerts of 2 April and 25 March 2003).
