Three TV crews prevented from filming at polling stations

Three television crews were prevented from covering the third round of voting in Egypt's parliamentary elections that took place in nine provinces on 1 December. Police stopped an Al-Hurra crew from shooting the surroundings of a polling station in El-Mansoura (120 km north of Cairo) which received a lot of coverage in the first two rounds. The crew, consisting of reporter Tarek El-Shamy and a cameraman, were finally allowed to work after getting permission from the authorities, but they were jeered and were told their safety was not guaranteed. An Al Jazeera crew was prevented from filming in Bandar-Kafr-El-Sheikh, north of the capital. Plain-clothes agents confiscated their camera, destroyed their video-cassette and threatened to break the camera if they tried to film again or take photos. Security agents briefly detained a three-member CNBC Arabiya crew that tried to cover the elections in El-Zaqaziq (83 km east of Cairo). After they were released, stones were thrown at them by unidentified individuals. Reporter Rami Ibrahim and soundman Mahfouz Ali managed to escape the missiles but cameraman Mahdi El-Enany was slowed down by his camera and was badly hurt. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29.11.2005 More police violence and threats against journalists covering elections Reporters Without Borders today condemned the many attacks, threats and other abuses against journalists in several provinces on 20 and 26 November in a continuation of the abuses being committed by police with complete impunity since staggered polling in ongoing legislative elections began on 8 November. The press freedom organisation called on the Egyptian authorities to stop harassing journalists covering the elections. Among the journalists attacked on 20 November was Los Angeles Times correspondent Hossam El-Hamalawy, who was beaten by nine plain-clothes security agents in the northern province of El-Behaira, and Mohamed Reda and Wael Mostafa, two reporters with the opposition weekly Afaq Arabeya. Police detained photographer Hossam Fadl of the independent daily Al Masry Al-Youm for seven hours in the eastern province of Suez on 20 November, while reporter Abdel-Hafiz Saad of the independent weekly Al-Fajr was arrested in the Nile Delta region of Bandar Tanta and taken to the Quhafa police station where he was severely beaten. Among the journalists attacked on 26 November was BBC reporter Mohammad Taha, who was hit with great force by a police officer. Security agents prevented Marwa Gadallah of Dubai Satellite Channel from entering a polling station. Mohamed Al-Bolok of the pan-Arab TV news station Al Jazeera and his crew were briefly detained at Quhafa police station. Reuters correspondent Tom Perry was also taken to this police station, where police confiscated his camera's memory card. Asmaa Mohamed Ahmed Hraiz of the opposition weekly El-Karamah was kidnapped by police outside a polling station in the district of Shoubra-El-Kheima north of Cairo on 26 November. A policeman confiscated her camera and mobile phone and threatened to rape her. Two police women then beat her unconscious and left her for dead in a park in the centre of Cairo. Abdel-Baseer Hassan of the BBC was denied access to two polling stations in the Ghorbal district of Alexandria on 26 November, while Agence France-Presse photographer Cris Bouroncle was prevented from working by policemen outside closed polling stations in the district of El-Mahmodeya, 200 km north of Cairo, and a policeman outside a polling station in El-Mahalla, 100 km north of the capital threatened Associated Press correspondent Maggie Michael with violence if she did leave at once. Also on 26 November, four journalists with the pro-government daily El-Akhbar, Afaf El-Sayed, Ahmed El-Dessouqi, Khaled Ghamal and Amir Lashin, were insulted, attacked and detained by police in the province of Qalyobeya.