by Chris Bodenner
The assaults have escalated in number and intensity. The Lede:
ABC News has complied a very long list detailing about 40 incidents in which reporters have been "threatened, attacked or detained while reporting in Egypt" in the past few days. After Egypt's new vice president, the intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, blamed the unrest "foreign interference," Jon Williams, the BBC's foreign editor, wrote on Twitter: "Intimidation of journalists in Cairo on scale not seen anywhere for years - reporters attacked, equipment seized. VP blaming media unhelpful." ... The Committee to Protect Journalists, listed more than a dozen journalists who had been harassed and placed the blame for the crackdown squarely on the shoulders of the Mubarak regime.
Of particular note:
A group of angry Egyptian men carjacked an ABC News crew and threatened to behead them today in the latest and most menacing attack on foreign reporters trying to cover the anti-government uprising.
More from the NYT:
The Washington Post said its Cairo bureau chief and a photographer who had been detained were released by Thursday evening. But two other employees - a translator and a driver - remained in custody. Two reporters working for The New York Times were released on Thursday after being detained overnight in Cairo.
AJE:
9:07pm Two Al Jazeera reporters have been attacked by a gang of thugs in Cairo
7:22pm Vice president Suleiman to Egyptian TV, (not naming Qatar or Al Jazeera): "I blame some sister countries that have unfriendly TV stations, which incite youth against us?."
5:56pm A Greek journalist was stabbed while covering the events in Tahrir Square.
EA:
1925 GMT: Al Jazeera reports that three of its journalists that had been detained earlier have been released. There is no word on a fourth journalist for the station who has been missing.
1923 GMT: Ayman Mohyeldin of Al Jazeera reports that two Brazilian journalists in Egypt for Radio Nacional and TV Brasil were forced out of the country.
2030 GMT: "Swedish TV reporter Bert Sundström hospitalised in Cairo after beatings. Stable but serious condition."
2040 GMT: We are getting constant reports of journalists getting beaten, arrested, forced out of the country and their equipment being ceased. Many have been missing as well. There seems to be an all out attack against journalists by government and thugs.