Press freedom body appalled by pro-Morsi attacks on Egyptian press

Press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders (RWB) on Tuesday said it was "appalled" at violent attacks against Egyptian journalists by supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi while they were covering demonstrations in Cairo last week. RWB indicated that it had just received information on the sequestering of two Egypian correspondents, who were held for several hours by pro-Morsi supporters and subjected to humiliation and beatings before being released. The press freedom body cited the cases of Mohammed Mumtaz, who works for "Veto" newspaper and Aya Hassan, who works for the "Yom 7" pubication. Both were dragged away by a crowd of demonstrators while they were photographing a protest in Cairo on August 9. The two journalists were kicked and beaten and blindfolded and Mumtaz was stripped by his captors. He was later treated for several hours in hospital. Hassan was kicked in the face, blindfolded, repeatedly beaten and threatened for a period of four hours. "What happened to these two journalists on August 9 is intolerable," Reporters Without Borders said. "The Egyptian authorities must deploy whatever resources are necessary to ensure that these abuses do not go unpunished. They must ensure that media personnel are protected." RWB said that although especially violent, these two attacks are unfortunately not isolated. "Morsi's supporters have repeatedly prevented Egyptian journalists from covering their demonstrations and have deliberately targeted them if they work for media that are not ideologically sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood," RWB said. It cited a number of other incidents on August 8, when Egyptian journalists, some working for foriegn media, were harassed and intimidated. Meanwhile, RWB remarked that Egyptian authorities have also been taking "harsh measures against news media that support the Muslim Brotherhood" and a total of 52 cases of journalists being arrested have been reported since Morsi's removal as president on July 3.