Feb. 3: The Arabic news network Al-Arabiya pleaded on an urgent news scroll for the Army to protect its offices and journalists, and Al-Jazeera said two of its correspondents were attacked.
Under an onslaught of international condemnation for the assault on protesters by pro-Mubarak rioters that sparked the renewed wave of turmoil, the government earlier on Thursday offered a series of gestures trying to calm the fury.
The Prime Minister apologised for Wednesday’s assault and acknowledged it may have been organised. The vice-president promised that Mubarak’s son — Gamal — would not run to succeed his father in presidential elections in September, and prosecutors announced an assets freeze and travel ban on three former ministers who were among the most unpopular regime figures.
But the gestures appeared likely to be swept away by the turmoil around Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, which for the past 10 days has been the centre of the unprecedented movement demanding Mubarak’s ouster. Protesters accuse the regime of organising a force of paid thugs and police in civilian clothes to attack them on Wednesday afternoon, sparking the violence that was still raging after nightfall Thursday.
Mubarak supporters, who were largely being beaten back by protesters in the square, launched a series of attacks and harassment against journalists, and the US state department condemned what it called a “concerted campaign to intimidate” the media. Foreign journalists were beaten with sticks and fists by pro-government mobs on Cairo’s streets on Thursday and dozens were reported detained by security forces.
The Egyptian military rounded up journalists on Thursday after they came under attack from supporters of President Mubarak who have been assaulting anti-government protesters.