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.