Rassd News Network: Brutal Killings and Arrests

Rassd News Network: Brutal Killings and Arrests Will Not Stop Our Media Mission

In a press release late on Sunday, the news monitoring Network RASSD condemned killings and arbitrary arrests of journalists, including 5 of its own correspondents.

Rassd News Network Press Release (issued Sunday evening):

On Sunday (August 25), Egyptian security forces arrested journalists Samihi Mustafa, Rassd’s Executive Director; and Dr. Abdullah Al-Fakharani, a founding member of the network, in a savage campaign of targeted killings and arbitrary arrests of journalists since the bloody breakup of Rabaa and Nahda squares sit-ins.

Dr. Abdullah Al-Fakharani and Samihi Mustafa (a father of a new-born boy) were not armed except with the truth and professional journalistic work on social networks in an attempt to break the media blackout imposed by the Egyptian putschist authorities and official media on what is happening in Egypt, and to practice the human right to knowledge and freedom of expression.

This savage and vengeful campaign of arrests is part of a continuous determined effort to target Rassd’s journalists and correspondents, after the killing of fellow photographer Musaab Al-Shami during the performance of his journalistic work, as documented on the Internet, by four bullets in the head and chest during the bloody clampdown on the Rabaa sit-in Thursday, August 15, a most reprehensible murder for which the Egyptian authorities bears full responsibility.

Earlier on Wednesday July 3, Egyptian security forces, in the city of Alexandria, arrested Rassd correspondents Mahmoud Abdul-Nabi and his brother Ibrahim Abdul-Nabi during the exercise of their professional journalistic work.

They, too, were not armed except with their camera. They began an open-ended hunger strike three weeks ago to protest the conditions of their detention.

Rassd strongly condemns the killing of its photographer, the arrests of four of its journalists, and the harassment it suffers at the hands of Egyptian security apparatus. Rassd holds authorities fully responsible for its detained journalists’ safety, and demands their immediate release.

Rassd will not give up its journalists’ human rights. It will use all legal means to defend them and to hold accountable those responsible for their illegal detention.

Rassd affirms that the Egyptian security apparatus’ threats will not discourage it from continuing its media mission. Rassd remains committed to the ethics and codes of honor of journalism, adheres to the journalistic values of accuracy, balance, independence and integrity, and conveys the truth as it is without any bias or distortion.

Rassd further appeals to all professional colleagues, international press associations and human rights organizations to stand by all detained journalists, to press for their release, and to ensure the exercise of their professional work without threats or harassment.

Rassd News Network

ENDS

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