Foreign Policy Blogs

Egypt's War on Journalists

As the situation in Egypt ramps up by the day, a casualty that is frequently making headlines  is the media. Specifically, reporters.

The attacks on journalists have become so frequent and high profile (think Anderson Cooper) that the White House, in a rare move, has commented on it. According to a story in the New York Times on Thursday:

The Egyptian government broadened its crackdown of a 10-day uprising that has shaken its rule Thursday, arresting journalists and human rights activists.

The NYTimes added that White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs, in statements to press traveling with President Obama, said that the Mubarak government’s harassment of journalists, is  “completely and totally unacceptable.”

The State Department said in a statement from spokesperson PJ Crowley on Wednesday:

After days of peaceful protests in Cairo and other cities in Egypt, today we see violent attacks on peaceful demonstrators and journalists. The United States denounces these attacks and calls on all engaged in demonstrations currently taking place in Egypt to do so peacefully. These attacks are not only dangerous to Egypt; they are a direct threat to the aspirations of the Egyptian people. The use of violence to intimidate the Egyptian people must stop. We strongly call for restraint.

The comments by the US government on the attacks on the media are unusual and demonstrate the highly sensitive nature of the events unfolding in Egypt. A key strategy has been to limit the outflow of news and information, but the attacks on and arrests of members of the media has had the opposite results.

Media freedom organizations also had strong condemnations for the targeting of journalists, with one organization calling the attacks an “all-out witch-hunt” against the media.

 

Author

Genevieve Belmaker

Genevieve Belmaker is a freelance journalist and contributing editor with The Epoch Times (www.theepochtimes.com). She also contributes to Quill, the magazine of the Society of Professional Journalists and Poynter.org. Her blog on journalism is http://artofreportage.com.

Genevieve has traveled throughout the U.S., Asia, Central America, Israel and the West Bank for reporting assignments, including major investigative reports on the recovery of New Orleans, the encroaching presence of China in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, the dangerous import of melamine-contaminated milk into the U.S. and settlement outposts in the West Bank. She regularly reports on issues related to journalism, and the work of journalists.

She holds a BA from the University of Southern California in International Relations, and has been a member of several prominent national and international professional media organizations, including the Society of Professional Journalists, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the International Women’s Media Foundation, the New York Press Club, and the Newswomen’s Club of New York. She lives in Jerusalem, Israel with her husband and son.

Areas of Focus:
New Media; Journalism; Culture and Society