Egyptian authorities have detained South African cameraman Adil Bradlow. Bradlow was covering the current crisis in Egypt for Al Jazeera. Also being held are Al Jazeera correspondent Wayne Hay, producers Russ Finn and Baher Mohammed. They have been held since Tuesday.
The arrests follow the detainment of Abdullah al-Shami who was performing his duties as an Al Jazeera correspondent when he was arrested after the raid of Rabaa Adawiya on 14 August, along with Mohamed Badr, a cameraman for Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr, who has been held for more than one month.
According to a state-run news agency MENA, government ministers said Al-Jazeera Mubashir Misr is operating “illegally, in violation to the profession’s standards and without a permit to work in Egypt”. The channel used satellite transmission without a license and spread “rumours and claims which are harmful to Egyptian national security and threaten the country’s unity”.
Last month, 28 Al Jazeera staff members were detained in Cairo after Egyptian forces raided the company’s offices. At the time, Mostefa Souag, acting director general of Al Jazeera Media Network, said media offices “should not be subject to raids and intimidation. Journalists should not be detained for doing their jobs”.
Reporters Without Borders said it was “alarmed by the growing hostility towards journalists in Egypt”. In a statement earlier this month, the organisation condemned the “many arrests of journalists” and reminded the authorities “they have a duty to allow reporters to work in the best possible manner”.
Al Jazeera said the government’s campaign was targeting the channel in particular. It said equipment seized in last month’s raid is still to be returned by security forces. “Al Jazeera calls for the Egyptian authorities to release all our staff unconditionally along with their belongings and equipment,” it said in a statement.
A journalist was killed in Egypt last week. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) said Tamer Abdel Raouf, Beheira bureau chief for the state paper Al-Ahram, was killed and Hamid al-Barbary, Beheira bureau chief for the state newspaper Al-Gomhuria, was wounded in the attack by security forces. The journalists had just left a meeting with the new governor of Beheira, al-Barbary said.
“Egyptian authorities should conduct an immediate and thorough investigation into the killing of Tamer Abdel Raouf,” said CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa Coordinator Sherif Mansour. “Tragically, the number of journalist deaths in Egypt has mounted quickly, and hopes for democratic rule in Egypt have faded just as fast.”
Deputy minister of international relations, Marius Fransman, told Eyewitness News he wasn’t aware of Bradlow’s detention.
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