Paris, February 04: France’s foreign minister on Friday condemned attacks on foreign journalists in Egypt as “unacceptable,” while Sweden’s prime minister urged Egyptian authorities to respect reporters covering pro-democracy demonstrations there.
Speaking at an EU summit in Brussels on Friday — a day after a crackdown by Egyptian authorities that allegedly saw more than 20 reporters detained and as many assaulted — Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said reporters are “the eyes and the ears of the world at the moment.”
In a statement, French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie condemned “the unacceptable incidents that have compromised the security” of journalists from French media outlets, including TF1, France 2, BFM and France 24 television channels and Le Monde newspaper.
Some of the media have declined to discuss incidents involving their staff out of fears for their safety, but late Thursday, France 24 issued a statement saying that three of its journalists who had been held for 24 hours had again been picked up by Egyptian military police, only hours after their release.
On its nightly newscast Thursday, France’s leading broadcaster, TF1, said two of its reporters were being held for questioning.
Alliot-Marie said some 20 French journalists were holed up in a hotel in Cairo and were in constant contact with the French embassy there.
France’s ambassador in the country has been instructed to intervene immediately in case of further problems involving French journalists, Alliot-Marie’s statement warned.
On Thursday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs denounced the “systematic targeting” of reporters covering the protests.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based media watchdog, said Thursday that it had recorded 24 detentions of journalists, 21 assaults and five cases in which equipment was detained over a 24-hour period.
Foreign photographers reported attacks by supporters of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak near Tahrir Square in central Cairo, the focal point of increasingly violent mass demonstrations demanding Mubarak step down after 30 years in power.
–Agencies