Another journalist beaten during first round of elections

Reporters Without Borders today firmly condemned an attack on Mamdouh Thabet, the correspondent of the daily Al-Masry Al-Youm in Assyut (480 km south of Cairo), who was roughed up on 9 November by thugs in the employ of two candidates in the ongoing parliamentary elections. “We call on the Egyptian authorities to do everything possible to detain those responsible at once,” the press freedom organisation said. Thabet was at a polling station in west Assyut covering the first round of the elections when a fight broke out between the supporters of two rival candidates, Mostafa Qorra'ah and Mohamed El-Sahafi. He had started to take photos of the brawl when he was spotted by one of Qorra'ah's thugs. They rushed at him, hit him in the face and tried to grab his camera, but he succeeded in escaping. Before taking refuge in an Internet café, he told a police officer what was happening in the next street and asked for help, but the policeman did not react. A short while later, he left the Internet café in order to take more photos but almost immediately found himself being attacked again, this time by members of both factions. He again managed to flee but had to leave his camera, with all the photos he had taken. Accompanied by friend who is also a journalist, Thabet went to a police station, showed his swollen face and neck, and filed a complaint. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14.11.2005 Journalists harassed in run-up to second round of legislative elections Reporters Without Borders strongly condemned the use of violence to intimidate journalists since the opening of the first round of Egyptian legislative elections on 8 November 2005. The worldwide press freedom organisation called on the Egyptian authorities to carry out thorough and serious investigations after several journalists were harassed or assaulted by the security services or by masked armed groups. "We urge the authorities to see to it that the law is respected and that journalists are allowed to carry out news-gathering in complete freedom and safety”, it said. “Crude and brutal intimidation of journalists should have no place in Egypt. We also call on President Hosni Mubarak to act to halt this harassment,” it said. Ahmad Mansur, of al-Jazeera TV in Cairo and presenter of the programme "Bela hudud" (Without borders) on the same station, was brutally beaten by two men in front of this office in the Egyptian capital on the evening of 9 November. After checking his identity, the two men beat him, breaking his glasses and leaving him with a neck injury before fleeing. He has been vocal in his criticism of the Egyptian head of state. On 13 November, Heba al-Qudsy, of the Arab-language daily Asharq al-Awsat, was beaten up by a group of men while covering a demonstration in Bulak Abu el-Ela, in the suburbs of Cairo. They also snatched his camera. Manar Khater, of the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yum was prevented from covering incidents following voting irregularities in the El Dokki district in Giza Province. Dina Gamil, of the weekly Al-A'alam Al-Yum was also prevented from attending the count in the same province. Crews working for BBC et al-Jazeera have also had trouble doing their job.