CAIRO: After Caroline Sinz, a French reporter for public TV station France 3, became the third women sexual assaulted while reporting from Egypt's Tahrir Square on Thursday, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) advised the media on Thursday night that “there is no other solution” but to hold off on sending female journalists to Egypt. After the advice had been highly criticized by the media, RSF pulled back their strict advice and urged the media instead “to take great care and to make the security of their reporters and local correspondents their priority” as “it is more dangerous for a woman than a man to cover the demonstrations in Tahrir Square.” “We are not saying the international media should pull out and stop covering events in Egypt. But they need to adapt to the threats that currently exist. And women journalists going to Tahrir Square should be aware of this situation,” RSF stated. Sinz is now the third case of sexual assault against foreign journalists while reporting from Tahrir Square. “We were filming in Mohammed Mahmoud Street when we were mobbed by young people who were about 14 or 15,” Sinz said. “We were then assaulted by a crowd of men. I was beaten by a group of youngsters and adults who tore my clothes. “Some people tried to help me but failed. I was lynched. It lasted three quarters of an hour before I was taken out. I thought I was going to die,” she added. Some hours before, Mona el-Tahawy, a prominent Egyptian-American columnist reported on Twitter that she had suffered a sexual assault by policemen while being held for 12 hours after being arrested near Mohammed Mahmoud Street. The events also bear in remembrance the sexual assult of US reporter Lara Logan of CBS News on February 11 by a crowd near Tahrir Square, when Hosni Mubarak fell from power. RSF highly condemns the current media freedom situation in Egypt, especially in light of the upcoming elections on Monday. “The Supreme Council has not only perpetuated Mubarak's methods of controlling news and information but has reinforced them,” the press freedom group said. In order “to remind everyone that a free press and the free flow of information are essential for democratic elections,” RSF “urges the international community to react and to do whatever is necessary to protect freedom of expression in Egypt” as “the democratic transition that Egyptians desire, will not be possible without media freedom, which is now in grave danger.” BM
