The Journalists Against Torture Observatory (JATO) has issued its monthly report on violations that journalists face while performing their duties.
Forty-eight cases of violations were recorded against journalists in April. Of those 48, 24 incidents involved journalists being prevented from covering events. Ten cases involved threats and verbal assaults, nine cases concerned beatings and other injuries, four cases involved journalists being arrested over investigations and one case involved a break-in at a newspaper headquarters, the report showed. It added that that the estimates are not complete, but reflect what the research unit was able to cull to date.
Regarding the attackers, the report showed equal rates of attacks by Interior Ministry troops and citizens, with 18 cases each. Government authorities and officials were involved in 11 cases.
The highest number of violations against citizens was recorded in Cairo with 31 cases, followed by Giza and the Red Sea, where each governorate recorded four cases, Menoufia with three cases, Sharqiya and Alexandria with two cases each and one case each in Suez and Port Said.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
