CAIRO: An Egyptian NGO has condemned restrictions placed on Al-Jazeera news channel by the government.
The Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said in a statement issued Sunday that the restrictions placed on Al-Jazeera amount to “a confiscation of the right of citizens to know and a violation of media freedom”.
An Al-Jazeera television crew was prevented from filming protests outside parliament last Saturday.
For over two months demonstrators have lined two streets outside parliament. Some of them are staging permanent sit-ins.
Al-Jazeera was prevented from filming the protests while other television crews were allowed to do so. According to ANHRI, this is the second time in a month that Al-Jazeera has been banned from filming.
The NGO says that on April 6 police officers grabbed tapes belonging to Al-Jazeera cameraman Yasser Soliman during a violent crackdown on protestors.
“This naïve restriction is no longer able to stop news and images from spreading out to the public. Al-Jazeera does not create events or news it merely just delivers it,” ANHRI says in its statement.
