Guardian Reporter Arrested and Beaten

[TomClash]

Source: Guardian

If you're wondering why Jack Shenker, reporting from Cairo for the Guardian, has been relatively quiet today, he was arrested and beaten by the police in the early hours of the morning. He was taken in the back of a police van where he used his dictaphone to record some remarkable audio describing what was happening around him and to interview other arrestees. The whole article and audio can be found by clicking on this link.


Here's a taste:

In the distance, riot police could be seen advancing from Tahrir. I called the news desk to report that violence was spreading; while I was on the phone the police began to charge, sending me and several hundred protestors running. A short distance away I stopped, believing it safe; a number of ordinarily dressed young men were running in my direction and I assumed them to be protestors also fleeing the police charge behind them. Yet as two of them reached me I was punched by both simultaneously and thrown to the ground, before being hauled back up by the scruff of the neck and dragged towards the police lines.

The men were burly and wore leather jackets – up close I could see they were amin dowla, plain-clothes officers from Egypt's notorious state security service. All attempts I made to tell them in Arabic and English that I was an international journalist were met with more punches and slaps; around me I could make out other isolated protestors also being hauled along, receiving the same treatment.
We were being dragged towards a security building on the edge of the square, just two streets away from my apartment, and as I approached the doorway of the building other security officers took flying kicks and punches at me. I spotted a high-ranking uniformed officer and shouted at him that I was a British journalist. He responded by walking over and punching me twice, saying in Arabic, "Fuck you and fuck Britain".

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/26/egypt-protests#block-32

[KeepItReal]

1. This is unbelievable

The audio is chilling

[TomClash]

2. Link to photos from Der Spiegel

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-63934-6.html

[CreekDog]

3. Egypt's government is a dictatorship run by thugs

has been for a long time.

:wtf:

[TomClash]

4. Twitter page is #Jan25

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23jan25

some of the tweets -

"Witness: Tens of protests fill Suez streets.Many injured & many dead.Street fighting is ongoing. Live ammunition."

"Just saw petrol bomb thrown at police truck in downtown Cairo. Also riot police violently pushing people away from lawyers union HQ"

"One million man march Fri"

[No Elephants]

5. Sad and disgusting.

[Catherina]

6. Rec'd with disgust. n/t