tagged w/ Cairo News
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An Egyptian news agency that transmitted footage of protesters tearing down a portrait of the president was fined $27,000 for operating unlicensed equipment, and its owner said Sunday he was targeted as a warning to other media.
A judge on Sunday upheld a complaint by the government against Nader Gohar, head of the Cairo News Company. The complaint came shortly after CNC broadcast footage from Al-Jazeera English in April showing the anti-government protesters.
Journalists have long complained of harassment by Egyptian security, particularly in recent weeks as they have been prevented from covering a series of events, including a deadly rock slide, a fire at the parliament building and the brutal killing of a pop singer.
"We're the largest company in our field," said Gohar. "When they hit on us, the others will behave."
CNC provides filming equipment and personnel to news agencies in Egypt then transmits their footage.
In September, a Cairo appeals court upheld a guilty verdict against a newspaper editor who wrote stories questioning President Hosni Mubarak's health and sentenced him to two months imprisonment.
The London-based human rights group Amnesty International had denounced that trial, calling it part of a "pattern" by Egyptian authorities of bringing criminal charges against journalists to "chill" media freedom.
"I see this as stupidity," said Gohar about the crackdown on journalists in Egypt. "The more freedom they give us, the better the government will look. Now the government's image is very bad."
Gohar said he's lost 70 percent of his business because of limitations placed on his work by the government after the complaint was filed.An Egyptian news agency that transmitted footage of protesters tearing down a portrait... more
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