Reporter sexually assaulted by mob in Egypt

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/16/3139988.htm


Reporter sexually assaulted by mob in Egypt

Updated 8 hours 34 minutes ago


CBS foreign correspondent Lara Logan suffered a "brutal" sexua| assault at the hands of a mob in Egypt while covering the downfall of president Hosni Mubarak, the US network said this morning.

"She and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into a frenzy," CBS said in a statement.

"In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexua| assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers."

The incident took place on Cairo's central Tahrir Square last Friday, the day Mr Mubarak stepped down, CBS said.

Logan was flown to the United States the next day.

"She is currently in the hospital recovering," the statement said.

South African-born Logan has covered the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, becoming one of the US media's most recognisable war correspondents.

She became chief foreign correspondent for CBS News in 2006.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a media watchdog group, said at least 52 journalists were attacked and 76 were imprisoned during the unrest in Egypt that led Mr Mubarak to step down after 30 years in power. All have been released, it said.

One journalist, Ahmad Mohamed Mahmoud of the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ta'awun, was killed while filming clashes near Tahrir Square, the CPJ said.

"Egypt's old regime orchestrated a ferocious campaign to stop the news of this movement for change," Paul Steiger, a member of the CPJ's board and former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, said.

- AFP/Reuters Tweet