18 seized journalists in ‘safe place’

EIGHTEEN journalists captured by ‘thugs’ while covering the protests in Egypt have been secured by the military and taken to a ‘safe place’, media reports said yesterday.

This came after the country’s cabinet — spurred by protests from across the world over the way reporters were being treated — instructed the army to assist foreign media and protect them from groups in plain clothes who have been attacking and beating up journalists as Cairo’s streets become more and more lawless.

Foreign journalists reported attacks by supporters of embattled President Hosni Mubarak near the capital’s Tahrir Square, the focal point of the increasingly violent demonstrations. This led to sharply limited television coverage of the protests on Thursday.