CAIRO - Two female journalists claimed that they were beaten and sexually harassed by policemen and thugs, while they were covering clashes at Tahrir Square on Wednesday night. The two women, who carry American and French passports, said that they were beaten by unidentified policemen and thugs while doing their job in Tahrir. Mona el-Tahawy, an Egyptian-born New York journalist, claimed that policemen had brutally beaten and sexually assaulted her in the Ministry of Interior headquarters, where she was detained after taking pictures of an anti-Government demonstration in Tahrir. El-Tahawy told a private TV channel on Thursday night that she was taking pictures of clashes between police and protesters in Tahrir Square, when unidentified policemen attacked her and detained her for 12 hours. “They hit me with their sticks on the arms and head,” El-Tahawy, 44, said. “The policemen sexually assaulted me, groping my breasts and putting their hands between my legs," she said, adding that the incident occurred few hours after her arrival in Cairo on Wednesday for covering the anti-Army protests. "Besides beating me, the dogs of (central security forces) subjected me to the worst sexual assault ever," she said on her Twitter account. "About 5 or 6 surrounded me and grabbed my genital area. I lost count how many hands tried to get into my trousers," she said. "My left arm and right hand are broken (according to X-rays)," she said, posting pictures of herself in casts. “What I experienced is just the tip of the iceberg of the brutality Egyptians experience every day,” she said. “This is just the type of brutality that our revolution came about to fight.” No Interior Ministry official was available to comment on el-Tahawy's report. On the same day, France 3 TV reporter Caroline Sinz said she, too, was sexually assaulted while covering the anti-military protests with her cameraman in Tahir Square. “We were assaulted by a crowd of thugs. I was beaten by a group of youngsters and adults who tore my clothes,” she said, adding that she was molested in a way that “would be considered rape.” “Some people tried to help me, but failed. I was lynched. It lasted three-quarters of an hour before I was taken out,” she said. The attacks are reminiscent of the sexual assault of CBS News reporter Lara Logan by a mob of men last February in Tahir Square. Once back in the US, Logan said she was molested for more than 40 minutes by a group of 200 or 300 men. On Tuesday, more than 200 Egyptian journalists held a peaceful rally in Cairo to protest incidents of police violence against their colleagues, while performing their professional duties in Tahrir Square over the past week. The protesting journalists, who processed from the Press Syndicate in Cairo to the General Attorney's Office in July 26th Street, were demanding that the Government protect media people in the country. They condemned the police attacks on media workers here, especially in Tahrir Square, where more than ten journalists have been seriously wounded by the riot police, and also in the coastal city of Alexandria. They said that the Government is failing to protect them, while they are performing their duties. "Violence against journalists is on the rise. But the Government has done nothing to devise an effective strategy for their protection," senior Syndicate member and Chairman of the Freedom Committee Mohamed Abdel-Qodous told The Gazette. He asked the Government to take effective steps to protect his colleagues, as they are doing nothing wrong, only performing their duties. He said that, since Saturday, about 10 journalists have been seriously wounded in Tahrir Square, where they are working in extremely tense conditions. “We will not abandon our profession despite the dangers,” the journalists said. "The journalists are protesting in solidarity with their colleagues, who have been beaten up by policemen during the clashes in Tahrir and Alexandria," Ms Abeer el-Saadi, a member of the Syndicate's Board, explained. “They are continually exposed to violence and there is no guarantee that they can do their work of reporting and gathering information freely.”
