Dozens of press photographers expressed their fury yesterday at security forces' harassment against them. They criticized the police for preventing them from doing their job, for confiscating their cameras and assaulting them especially while they were covering pro-Gaza popular demonstrations. During the protest that they staged yesterday in front of the Syndicate of Journalists, they also criticized the security forces for tightening their grip on the media, targeting photographers and spoiling their equipment to stop people from knowing the truth. They issued a statement calling for an investigation into the assaults on photographers and for the restitution of their confiscated cameras. They also demanded that photographers be allowed doing their job and bringing the truth objectively and impartially. The statement also says the photographers were preventing from doing their job under the pretext that they had not been authorized to take pictures by the Ministry of Interior. The photographers raised boards with the pictures of the security forces' recent, violent and repeated violations against their colleagues. Al-Masry Al-Youm photographer Mohamed Hissam was assaulted by security forces while he was covering the anti-Gaza war demonstrations. "I was beaten by the police while I was taking pictures of a demonstration in Cairo last week" he said.
