US Slams Egypt for Abuse of Foreign Journalists

The Egyptian government of President Hosni Mubarak is now fair game for public U.S. criticism. The State Department Thursday laid into the regime for its intimidation of international journalists covering the turmoil, The Hill reports.


"There is a concerted campaign to intimidate international journalists in Cairo and interfere with their reporting," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley wrote on Twitter Thursday morning. "We condemn such actions." Anderson Cooper (pictured), of CNN, was among the U.S. journalists attacked while reporting Wednesday. Other journalists reported similar action against them.

The group Reporters Without Borders blasted what it calls "shocking attacks on BBC, Al Jazeera, CNN, Al-Arabiya and ABC News journalists by Mubarak supporters who were reportedly accompanied by plainclothes police."

The group’s secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said in a statement, “Several [journalists] were directly targeted by the president’s supporters and infiltrated policemen. Several were beaten, and their equipment was stolen.”