By Leena El-Deeb
Nada El-Kholy, a journalist working at Al-Shorouk newspaper, was attacked Saturday night while covering a pro-Morsi march in Al-Zaitoon in Cairo.
El-Kholy said her lip was bruised, her camera was broken and its memory card stolen by a group of “thugs” who attacked her while filming the end of the march on Seleem Street.
One of the men held a screwdriver in one hand and held her with another: “he kept telling me to hand over the camera” and asked her repeatedly whether she was pro-Morsi. El-Kholy said she refused to give him the camera and told him “I’m just a journalist, I’m not pro or anti!” he then hit her with the screwdriver, striking her mouth.
One of her neighbours who stepped in to stop the circle of men attacking her, had his face severely bruised.
El-Kholy filed a complaint against the attackers at the Al-Zaitoon police station accompanied with her medical report, along with that of her injured neighbour who helped her. The investigation is set to start on Tuesday.
“Maybe if I was wearing a blouse and jeans I wouldn’t have been attacked.” She said was just done with taraweeh prayer, and wearing an abaaya, a loose-fitting Islamic dress, when she found herself in front of the end of a pro-Morsi march in Seleem Street.
“I won’t stop covering protests; this is our job as journalists, and nothing will stop us. Ahmed Assem from the Freedom and Justice newspaper was killed, Mohamed Badr from Al-Jazeera was arrested and on 19 July Menna Alaa from Al-Masry Al-Youm got attacked and her camera was stolen.” El-Kholy said.
Video journalist Menna Alaa was covering the pro-Morsi protests on 19 July, at Rabaa Al-Adaweya, when a bearded man snatched her camera, asking her “What are you filming? Who sent you?” Menna told him she was just a journalist who was covering the march from the beginning. The man allegedly “smacked” her on the face and stole her camera.
