• EGYPT
  • April 3, 2013
  • 2 minutes read

Egypt ‘Journalists for Reform’ Condemns Lynching of Journalists at Church Ceremony

Egypt ‘Journalists for Reform’ Condemns Lynching of Journalists at Church Ceremony

The ‘Journalists For Reform’ (JFR) movement strongly denounced the brutal lynching of journalists in a church’s 45th celebration of the appearance of Virgin Mary in Cairo’s Zeitoun district. The journalists were attacked by the church’s Boy Scouts team. JFR stressed the need to hold the aggressors accountable immediately and urged the Journalists’ Syndicate president Diaa Rashwan and the Syndicate board to take a firm position toward the heinous crime.

In a statement, JFR condemned, in the strongest terms, the attacks on the journalists by hands, leather belts and abhorrent expletives. Some attackers even strangled Tanios Tamri, journalist with the ‘Mashhad’ newspaper, until he almost lost consciousness. Others assaulted Raymon Nagy, female editor of the newspaper ‘Veto’. Journalists were also humiliated and verbally abused with the dirtiest and most offensive profanity.

The JFR also demanded the Journalists Syndicate Board should show solidarity with Nagy and Tamri, and file a formal complaint against the perpetrators, especially since they are well known to eyewitnesses.

Moreover, JFR stressed that continued assault crimes against journalists are the responsibility of the Syndicate board, which did not move a finger since the journalists were so criminally assaulted. As if crimes and responses follow specific political agendas, and are directed only against a particular faction.