(RSF/IFEX) – In a 16 November 2000 letter to Interior Minister Habib el Adli, RSF protested an attack on two journalists who were covering the legislative elections in Cairo. Robert Ménard, RSF’s secretary-general, asked the minister “to ensure that an inquiry is immediately opened into the incident and that those responsible are punished.” RSF recalled […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a 16 November 2000 letter to Interior Minister Habib el Adli, RSF protested an attack on two journalists who were covering the legislative elections in Cairo. Robert Ménard, RSF’s secretary-general, asked the minister “to ensure that an inquiry is immediately opened into the incident and that those responsible are punished.” RSF recalled that, since the beginning of the election, seven journalists have been assaulted and several others have had their equipment confiscated (see IFEX alerts of 9 November and 25 October 2000). Three journalists are currently in jail in Egypt.
According to information collected by RSF, the two journalists were assaulted on 14 November, while covering the election in two districts of Cairo where Islamist candidates are running. Marwan Maami, a photographer with Agence France-Presse, was assaulted in the district of Guizeh (southern part of Cairo) by several men who admitted to being police informers. Sarah al-Dib, a journalist with Associated Press, was wounded and thrown to the ground in Bassatine (southern part of Cairo) by two women. According to both journalists, the police, who were present while the incidents occurred, did not intervene.
