State gives syndicate 100 bulletproof vests and helmets for journalists

In light of increased casualties and fatalities amongst journalists in Egypt, President of the Journalists Syndicate Diaa Rashwan announced the receipt of 100 bulletproof vests and helmets for field reporters on Tuesday, provided by the government.

Rashwan said 50 vests and 50 helmets were received from the Defense Ministry, with each vest reported to cost several thousand pounds.

The Interior Ministry is said to have delivered another 50 vests to the syndicate in recent weeks, according to state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper. Although, independently-owned Al-Shorouk only mentions 30.

Speaking to the private ONA News Agency, Rashwan commented that 30 gas masks have also been promised by the Defense Ministry.

A total of six journalists and photographers have been killed since the ousting of former President Mohamed Morsi on July 3 last year. The latest fatality is Mayada Ashraf, from Al-Dostour newspaper, who was shot dead on March 28 during clashes between police and Morsi supporters in Cairo’s Ain Shams district.

The Journalists Syndicate requested the protective equipment immediately after Ashraf’s death. The Committee to Protect Journalists has listed Egypt as the world’s third deadliest country for journalists, after Syria and Iraq.

Several other journalists and media crews — including both Egyptians and foreigners — have been injured, arrested, or placed on trial before civilian courts and military tribunals.

Two journalists were shot with live ammunition on April 14 while covering a police crackdown on protesting students at Cairo University.

Calls for a strike on field coverage to protest the numerous physical assaults on reporters have grown from within the Journalists Syndicate since the shooting. However, many journalists have criticized such a strike call, pointing out that it would grant security forces the green light to attack and even kill protesters in the total absence of media coverage.

Other journalists have argued that the security forces’ narratives regarding protests and clashes would remain entirely unchallenged by the media in the course of such a strike.

Also on Tuesday, a delegation of board members from the Journalists Syndicate met with the Prosecutor General Hesham Barakat, to discuss prosecutors’ probes into the murder and injury of field journalists.

According to the state-owned MENA News Agency, Barakat pledged a renewed effort to expose the causes and conditions behind assaults on journalists, while bringing their perpetrators to account.

However, authorities have typically accused the Muslim Brotherhood and allied Islamist groups of being behind these recent attacks on journalists.

At the request of syndicate board members, Barakat also pledged to look into the cases of journalists who are being held in detention pending investigation, in attempts to secure their release.

However, the prosecutor general announced that he could not work for the release of journalists standing trial, as this is not within his jurisdiction, but is the responsibility of the judges.