Mubarak’s war on media | On the 10th day of Egyptian revolt

It appears Egyptian President Hosini Mubarak launched a wide-scale attack on media on Thursday, Cairo Time. The attack targeted a famous blogger, journalists of several media outlets and also a facebook page. Here are some of the incidents:

Blogger Sandmonkey arrested then released

Earlier today, the Guardian reported the arrest of Blogger Sandmonkey and his site has been taken down. Though he is released after about 8 hours detention, Sandmonkey’s blog remained suspended.

Sandmonkey twitted the following four notes since his release – around 6 pm Cairo time).

1. Please don’t respond to my phone or BBM. This isn’t me. My phone was confiscated by a thug of an officer who insults those who call. [latest tweet]
2. I am humbled by you all. Thank you so much. I am trying to get a decent computer to write it all.
3. will tell the story later . Thank you all. I just need to rest now.
4. I am ok. I got out. I was ambushed & beaten by the police, my phone confiscated , my car ripped apar& supplies taken #jan25

Attack on a facebook page

A facebook page of Egyptian dissidents has apparently been attacked today. The page, with the name ‘Operation Egypt’ had been deleted sometime this morning – Cairo Time. Its membership count surged from less than one thousand on Jan 31 to almost and about 8,000 members in only two days. The page had been providing real-time updates including English translations posts on other pages on facebook run in Arabic. Some of the posts had been trying to coordinate for specific medical and other facilities needed on the ground – Tahrir Square.

Administrators of the page justifiably suspect Mubarak’s security apparatus. In fact, the last time I checked the page, around 3 a.m Cairo time, the page had been spammed by pro-Mubarek posts warning protestors to go home and questioning their loyalty to Egypt – a propaganda line Mubarak set off by his speech yesterday.

The Admins of the page were able to resume their activity with a second page, ‘Operation Egypt 2’, created two days ago as a ‘backup’ anticipating an attack. They also created a new page with name of the deleted page – Operation Egypt, where previous members are regrouping. (This is based on my observations, some members told me it was deleted twice on Thursday. Further info will be posted if and when the page Admins provide details)

BBC posted the following updates today:

• [on 12:42] There are lots of tweets about journalists being under attack close to Tahrir Square – such as Tristan Redman who tweets: “Reports that an #alarabiya crew is under attack next to state TV building. Al Arabiya is appealing on air for help from military #egypt”
• [on 12:12] US journalist Lauren E Bohn tweets: “Call from source telling us orders have been issued to arrest journos. We’re staying in secure location, filing stories. #Egypt #Jan25.”

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times reported today:

In my area of Tahrir, the thugs were armed with machetes, straight razors, clubs and stones. And they all had the same chants, the same slogans and the same hostility to journalists.

Reporters Without Borders reported: (here) & (here)

• Reporters Without Borders unreservedly condemns today’s shocking attacks on BBC, Al Jazeera, CNN, Al-Arabiya and ABC News journalists by Mubarak supporters who were reportedly accompanied by plainclothes police.
• Because of the confusion surrounding today’s protests, it is still hard to obtain precise details about the violence against the media. Initial reports indicate that Anderson Cooper of CNN, Jerome Boehm of the BBC and Lara Setrakian of Bloomberg were among those who were attacked by Mubarak supporters. (link)
• Belgian journalist Serge Dumont in Cairo. The Middle East correspondent of three newspapers – Belgium’s Le Soir, Switzerland’s Le Temps and France’s La Voix du Nord – was arrested and beaten by men in plain-clothes at midday while in the central neighbourhood of Choubra. He was then taken to a military post, where he was accused of “spying” and was told he would be handed over to the security services. (link)

Vancouver Sun

• The Globe and Mail’s Sonia Verma was posting online from Cairo when she was apparently taken into custody. “Military have commandeered us and our car,” she wrote on Twitter, shortly after posting: “We are being taken into some kind of custody.” Verma and her colleague, Patrick Martin, were released more than three hours after her last post. “We are out we are free!” she tweeted. Verma said she was detained with about 25 other foreigners, including journalists.
• CBC Radio’s Margaret Evans was on air Thursday morning reporting that her crew’s camera equipment had been seized by police and that they were stuck in their hotel, reporting from a balcony that overlooked Tahrir Square.
• A Radio-Canada producer, Jean-Francois Lepine, cameraman Sylvain Castonguay and a few other colleagues were at their hotel recuperating from a violent confrontation with protesters.
• Caught in the crossfire of stones and other projectiles, the crew’s interpreter was attacked without provocation, according to Radio-Canada. Lepine said the crew began to leave when a Mubarak supporter punched Castonguay in the face before “dozens” set upon the cameraman.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Philip J Crowley tweeted: [around 4pm Cairo Time]

There is a concerted campaign to intimidate international journalists in #Cairo and interfere with their reporting. We condemn such actions.

**There is also a report that another European journalist has been stabbed in Cairo today.(no details yet)

[Please note that this post is written in haste. And, also to be updated in the following hours as more reports of Mubarak’s war on media come out.]