Mubarak supporters attack journalists

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Supporters of Egyptian  President Hosni Mubarak attacked journalists on Cairo streets  today, the Committee to Protect Journalists said,  calling the incidents an effort at “blanket censorship.”
The New York-based rights group released a statement urging  the Egyptian military to provide protection for journalists  covering protests there and listing a series of attacks.
“The Egyptian government is employing a strategy of  eliminating witnesses to their actions,” said Mohamed Abdel  Dayem, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa coordinator.
“The government has resorted to blanket censorship,  intimidation, and today a series of deliberate attacks on  journalists carried out by pro-government mobs,” he said.
Among the reported incidents against the press are:
* Plainclothes police attacked the offices of Cairo  newspaper Al-Shorouk, which said a reporter and photographer  were injured and a camera smashed. The newspaper’s website also  said army officers confiscated a press card and a memory card  from one of its reporters on the street.
* Police arrested four Israeli journalists in Cairo for  violating the curfew and for entering the country on tourist  visas, according to news reports.
* Belgian journalist Maurice Sarfatti, who writes under the  name Serge Dumont and works for various newspapers, was beaten  and arrested while on assignment in Cairo, according to a  statement from Brussels-based Le Soir, which said he was being  held by soldiers and accused of being a spy.
* CNN’s Anderson Cooper and his crew were attacked by  pro-Mubarak supporters. “We were moving quickly and a bunch of  guys who hit us were also on the move, a lot of it was sort of  glancing blows,” Cooper told Reuters.
* ABC journalist Christiane Amanpour said in a statement  that she and her crew also were confronted in Cairo by  protesters. “An angry mob surrounded us and chased us into the  car, shouting that they hate America,” she said. “They kicked  in the car doors and broke our windshield as we drove away.”
* The Associated Press said two of its correspondents were  roughed up covering a pro-Mubarak gathering.
* Danish Middle East correspondent Steffen Jensen was  beaten by pro-Mubarak supporters with clubs while reporting  live on the phone to Danish TV2 News from Cairo, Danish media  reported. Jensen, who was not seriously injured, said he was  being held by soldiers and did not know the reason for his  detention.
* The BBC reported that its correspondent Rupert  Wingfield-Hayes was detained in Cairo by secret police agents  who handcuffed and blindfolded him and an unnamed colleague and  detained them for three hours.
* CPJ said Al-Jazeera continues to face pressure from the  government-owned Nilesat satellite provider, which has taken  steps to try and keep the news channel off the air.