Egypt: govt sympathisers target reporters and journalists; Swedish reporter stabbed
18 replies, posted
[url]http://www.thelocal.se/31826/20110203/[/url]
[quote][img]http://www.thelocal.se/articleImages/31826.jpg[/img]
Swedish public broadcaster SVT said Thursday evening one of its reporters covering unrest in Cairo, who it had lost contact with for several hours, had received serious "knife injuries."
[B]The reporter, "Bert Sundström is seriously injured. He is now at a hospital in Cairo and is being operated on for knife injuries," SVT said on its website.[/B]
"It remains unclear what happened when he was hurt," it added.
Earlier Thursday, the broadcaster had said it had lost contact with Sundström and feared he was being held by the Egyptian military.
The reporter had participated in a live broadcast at midday.
[B]However, when his producer called him for another report from Tahrir square two hours later "a voice in Arabic answered and said Bert was being held. Then the connection cut," producer Robert Wiström told SVT.[/B]
According to a Swedish translation posted on SVT's website, the voice said:
[B]
"Your man is being held by the military. You sons of whores, if you want him back you will have to come get him. Your man is held by the Egyptian government. He is alive and awake."[/B]
On Sunday, two other SVT reporters were arrested but released shortly after, SVT said.
[B]
"We're seeing a tendency and receiving reports of journalists being systematically attacked and that they're being detained by both the military and security forces, but also by all out mobs," foreign ministry spokesperson Anders Jörle told the TT news agency.
[/B]
"We're concerned about these developments and hope that editors are aware of them," he said, adding that the foreign ministry's own resources in Cairo are currently under tremendous strain.
"It's not easy for the embassy to help out," he said.
[B]
Sundström's hospitalisation comes amid several reports of violence meted out to foreign journalists covering the unfolding political upheaval in the Egyptian as tensions heated up between protestors calling for Mubarak's ouster and supporters of the regime.
[/B]
World leaders, rights activists and media organisations have denounced the numerous attacks and harassment of journalists attempting to report on the turmoil in Egypt, with the US ambassador in Cairo condemning a "concerted campaign" of intimidation against international journalists.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was looking into at least 10 cases of journalists who had been detained on Thursday, the New York Times reported.
[B]"The Egyptian government is employing a strategy of eliminating witnesses to their actions," Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, said in a statement on Wednesday.[/B]
[B]"The government has resorted to blanket censorship, intimidation, and today a series of deliberate attacks on journalists carried out by pro-government mobs."[/B]
According to the group, the Egyptian government has labeled to detentions as "protective custody" rather than arrests.
Bildt also expressed his concern for journalists covering events in Egypt in conversations Thursday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
"Naturally, my concerns also addressed the current situation and its escalating violence which also includes attacks on journalists," Bildt said in a blog post.
He also emphasised that "the Egyptian government has a duty to protect individuals' lives and rights, including the right to peacefully express their opinions."
According to Bildt, Aboul Gheit ensured him that newly appointed Egyptian vice president Omar Suleiman planned to launch a dialogue with opposition forces regarding constitutional changes which Bildt characterised as "a precondition for having genuinely free elections."[/quote]
Completley fucking senseless, according to some news clip I saw some groups are being paid/promised "great wealth" if they stirr up shit and target innocent people, specifically non-egyptians. I can see why the egyptians are tired of their current rulers if they resort to this kind of bullshit.
I gotta honest question
is it just a coincidence that all the worst countries are in the middle east..or what?
[QUOTE=Tetracycline;27848618]I gotta honest question
is it just a coincidence that all the worst countries are in the middle east..or what?[/QUOTE]
africa has way worse countries
Well then let me ask my question in a better way
"Is it just a coincidence that a lot of the countries in the middle east are awful or what"
again, although this is bad, this just shows how badly the government and loyalists are shitting themselves. hopefully it wont be long before the ruling party is taken down and hopefully a new government replaces it quickly, and is a good government
[editline]4th February 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Tetracycline;27848671]Well then let me ask my question in a better way
"Is it just a coincidence that a lot of the countries in the middle east are awful or what"[/QUOTE]
no, there are a lot of reasons for it, just like it isnt a coincidence the shittiest countries are in africa
European Colonialism :eng101:
Way to fuck shit up France and England!
dont quote me on this but i think the history of repression goes back to the ottoman empire and its decline, a bit before the british and french set up colonies in those areas
The term 'government sympathizers' seems to imply that a false sense of supporters of Mubarak's regime, this is hardly the truth. They're actually non-uniformed police officers and other government officials.
[QUOTE=Tetracycline;27848618]I gotta honest question
is it just a coincidence that all the worst countries are in the middle east..or what?[/QUOTE]
The Middle East isn't all that different from Asia/Eastern Europe, and Africa is far worse. Iran is pretty well off, as is Jordan and Israel. It's just Iraq (which is America's fault, it was ruled by a dictator but otherwise stable) and Afghanistan (that's Russia's fault)
[QUOTE=JLea;27848795]The Middle East isn't all that different from Asia/Eastern Europe, and Africa is far worse. Iran is pretty well off, as is Jordan and Israel. It's just Iraq (which is America's fault, it was ruled by a dictator but otherwise stable) and Afghanistan (that's Russia's fault)[/QUOTE]
it isnt all that bad except the constant terrorist attacks in israel/palestine, the blockade of gaza, the repression of iran. stability isnt the only way to measure how good a country is anyways, nk is pretty stable for the time being but its incredibly shitty.
[editline]4th February 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Starpluck;27848791]The term 'government sympathizers' seems to imply that a false sense of supporters of Mubarak's regime, this is hardly the truth. They're actually non-uniformed police officers and other government officials.[/QUOTE]
source?
[QUOTE=Tetracycline;27848671]Well then let me ask my question in a better way
"Is it just a coincidence that a lot of the countries in the middle east are awful or what"[/QUOTE]
The United States and the Soviet Union fucked a lot of them up pretty badly in the later years of the Cold War.
[QUOTE=Aredbomb;27848817]The United States and the Soviet Union fucked a lot of them up pretty badly in the later years of the Cold War.[/QUOTE]
yeah alot of instability in the east can be attributed to usa meddling (iran, iraq) and i guess afghanistan was fucked pretty bad by both.
[QUOTE=JLea;27848795]The Middle East isn't all that different from Asia/Eastern Europe, and Africa is far worse. Iran is pretty well off, as is Jordan and Israel. It's just Iraq (which is America's fault, it was ruled by a dictator but otherwise stable) and Afghanistan (that's Russia's fault)[/QUOTE]
Afghanistan is not [i]that[/i] bad really, it's no paradise, but it's making far more progress than it was under the Taliban. I'd rather live there than Iran.
On subject, I heard the Fox guys were beaten and injured. They made it out before they got any serious injuries though. This just goes to show the shitty state of the government there.
Things look bad in Egypt...
[QUOTE=Lachz0r;27848863]yeah alot of instability in the east can be attributed to usa meddling (iran, iraq) and i guess afghanistan was fucked pretty bad by both.[/QUOTE]
Not that you can blame the West for all violence in the region. For example, Afghanistan is comprised of numerous different tribes and ethnic groups, many of which hate each other and have tried to kill each other off for ages.
[QUOTE=Dr_Funk;27850736]Not that you can blame the West for all violence in the region. For example, Afghanistan is comprised of numerous different tribes and ethnic groups, many of which hate each other and have tried to kill each other off for ages.[/QUOTE]
well i think you can partially, i mean when iran & iraq both moved towards more liberal governments the USA helped have them overthrown by violent extremists.
Happened to a few dutch reporters as well, it's ridiculous
[QUOTE=yawmwen;27848811]it isnt all that bad except the constant terrorist attacks in israel/palestine, the blockade of gaza, the repression of iran. stability isnt the only way to measure how good a country is anyways, nk is pretty stable for the time being but its incredibly shitty.
[editline]4th February 2011[/editline]
source?[/QUOTE]
[quote=CNN news report]
There were immediate suspicions that the pro-Mubarak demonstrators were not simply average citizens standing up for the man who has led Egypt for three decades -- suspicions that proved at least partly founded
[/quote]
[quote]Several CNN journalists heard from pro-Mubarak demonstrators that they worked for the government. Staff from the national petrochemical company said they had been ordered to come and protest..[/quote]
[quote]Amnesty International researchers said witnesses told them of "lorry loads" of pro-Mubarak supporters leaving Wednesday morning from Mahalla, north of Cairo.
"These (pro-Mubarak) protests were organized by the government and the ruling National Democratic Party," analyst Kamal Zakher told CNN. The government mustered government workers and lawmakers whose seats are threatened, he said.
"They were ordered to go out today. They are well organized and that is suspicious -- especially the use of camels and horses. These are abnormal techniques to demonstrate," he said, referring to the shocking charge of about 50 or 60 mounted men through Tahrir in the middle of the afternoon.
[/quote]
[quote]And Emad Shahin, a Mideast analyst at the University of Notre Dame, said "reliable contacts in Egypt" told him the counter-protesters were organized "by Mubarak himself," with the aid of businessmen who support him.[/quote]
[url]http://articles.cnn.com/2011-02-02/world/egypt.pro.mubarak_1_pro-mubarak-egypt-s-president-hosni-mubarak-anti-government-protests?_s=PM:WORLD[/url]
Once again proving that Mubarak is absolute scum.
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