Egyptian Military Seizes Al Jazeera Equipment, Shuts Down Feed

According to Al Jazeera, six of its journalists were detained in Egypt and their equipment confiscated by the military. That came a day after the government said it was shutting down its bureau and revoking its broadcast license, and also after Al Jazeera vowed to continue covering the story.

According to the Qatar-based international news network, Egyptian satellite transmission company Nilesat is now blocking its signal into the country.

Al Jazeera continues to stream coverage over its Web site, but the Egyptian government has blocked access to Web sites.

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the Egyptian government for the journalist crackdown. "The shutting down of Al-Jazeera is a brazen violation of the fundamental right of Egyptians to receive information as their country is in turmoil," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, in a statement. "The international community should prevail upon President Mubarak to lift this censorship immediately."

Protesters calling for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak continued to disregard a government-imposed curfew, according to Al Jazeera, and are calling on millions to march on Tuesday.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.