By Adriana Prado
Members of the Brazilian media who traveled to Egypt to cover the protests for and against President Hosni Mubarak have suffered various types of harassment at the hands of the police, including hotel room raids, equipment confiscation, and deportation.
On Feb. 2, Globo, Folha de S. Paulo, and Estado de S. Paulo report that their correspondents in Egypt had their rooms searched by police looking for camera equipment. They were warned that such equipment was prohibited.
The same day, reporters for Rádio Nacional and TV Brasil were arrested, blindfolded, and had their equipment and passports confiscated, IG reports. They spent the night in an empty, windowless Cairo police department room. Rádio Nacional reporter Corban Costa told Agência Brasil that at "first, I thought we were going to be shot, because they put us in front of a big wall, but, thank God, that didn't happen."
The journalists will return to Brazil Feb. 4, as they were forced to sign a document promising to leave the country, Estado de S. Paulo explains.
Corespondents from media outlets worldwide, including several from the U.S., have been threatened, attacked, and even kidnapped in Egypt while covering the protests.
This blog is produced at The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin and funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
