Sky news cameraman Mick Deane may have been deliberately targeted by a sniper yesterday on a day in which journalists from around the world came under attack in Egypt.
Deane, 61, was bearing witness to attacks on protestors at the Rabaa al-Adawiya alongside Sky News colleague Sam Kiley when he was killed. Kiley said the camp was facing a "massive military assault on largely unarmed civilians".
A colleague who witnessed his death told the Daily Mirror: "Mick was about to lift the camera to his shoulder when a sniper opened fire and killed him instantly."
According to press reports, at least 140 protestors were killed when two protest camps in Cairo were stormed with armoured bulldozers.
Yesterday there were multiple reports of journalists being attacked, shot at, detained and obstructed across Egypt.
Deputy director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists Robert Mahoney said: "The tragic deaths and injuries among the press corps today are not acceptable under a government that said it took power to restore democratic freedoms.
"The Egyptian government must allow all journalists to work freely. They should also conduct an immediate investigation into who killed Mick Deane and hold those responsible to account."
An Egyption journalist, who was reportedly not on assignment, was also killed yesterday in Rabaa Al-Adawiya. Habiba Ahmed Abd Elaziz was a staff reporter for Dubai newspaper XPRESS.
Reuters photographer Asmaa Waguih was shot in the foot while covering Rabaa Al-Adawiya, according to Reuters, and Al Jazeera photographer Mohammed Alzeky was shot in the arm, a witness told the CPJ.
A photographer for Al-Masry Al-Youm, Ahmed al-Najjar, was also shot in the arm while covering the clashes between police and supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.
According to the CPJ, several journalists were also detained by police "in an attempt to restrict coverage of the raid on the pro-Morsi sit-ins".
A French freelance using the pseudonym 'Mani', who was covering the unrest for Channel 4, told the CPJ he was taken to Cairo Stadium and that police "kicked him and beat him with sticks and a gun and stole his equipment, which included his wallet, press card, and phone".
Mani told the CPJ that he was in custody with two other journalists, Mike Giglio, an American journalist working for The Daily Beast, and Louis Jammes, a French freelance reporter.
The three journalists were released after three hours, but without their equipment.
Giglio said police surrounded him outside Rabaa Al-Adawiya and demanded that he give them his laptop password – beating him until he complied.
There were widespread other reports of journalists being detained, threatened and obstructed from reporting by Egyptian security forces.
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