Authorities raided Al Jazeera’s Egyptian news station offices and shut down other Islamist-run stations yesterday, shortly after President Mohamed Morsi was overthrown by the Egyptian Army.
Five of the staff members from the channel Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr were detained, with four released later, said one of Al Jazeera’s journalists, Karim El-Assiuti.
Al Jazeera English reported they were interrupted during a live broadcast and the presenters and guests were arrested.
They were prevented from broadcasting a pro-Morsi rally in Northern Cairo and the crew was detained there as well.
The military-led authorities also shut down several other stations plus the station owned by the Muslim brotherhood, Egypt25.
It was forced off air and the managers were arrested. Two other Islamist-run stations, Al-Hfiz and Al-Nas, were also shut down by authorities.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that minutes after Gen. Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi, the Egyptian defense minister, announced Morsi’s ousting, live broadcasts and outlets were cut off from Egypt25, including its live feed on YouTube.
Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa Coordinator, said they are concerned that authorities are shutting down television coverage based on political perspectives.
“We urge the military not to deprive Egyptians of information sources at this important juncture,” he said.
The front spokesman, Khaled Dawoud, spoke to Al Jazeera English and said that it had to be done due to the exceptional circumstances.
“I don’t believe closing down any newspaper or any channel is a useful measure … but we are going through a very critical time here, the situation is dangerous,” said Dawoud.
“I hope this is an exceptional measure that will last only for a few days, but when you have a critical time of change like this and you have some other people who are trying to incite supporters to go and fight I don’t think it is useful to have these channels working at these critical hours.”
