Fox News Team Badly Beaten in Cairo

Update: Greg Palkot and Olaf Wiig hospitalized; more journalists arrested, detained in Egypt, including CBS News’ Lara Logan; pro-government supporters continue intimidation campaign

A pair of Fox News correspondents were severely beaten and hospitalized in Egypt on Wednesday as attacks on journalists there continue to escalate.

Correspondent Greg Palkot (pictured late last week) and his cameraman, Olaf Wiig, were attacked, Fox News reported on Thursday.

Also read: How Egypt's Social Media Revolution Could Spread Across the Middle East

Palkot and Wiig were above Tahrir Square when the attack happened, Fox News' John Roberts said on the air Thursday afternoon.

"They were forced to leave their position when a Molotov cocktail was thrown at it," Roberts said. "A large fire erupted. They were forced to flee. They ran out and ran right into the pro Mubarak crowd and were severely beaten and had to be taken to the hospital, spent the night in the hospital. The extent of their injuries was fairly grave, however, they have been released from the hospital."

Fox News did not report the news Wednesday out of safety concerns for the injured reporters, the network said. But the incident appears to be the most serious attack on the media in Cairo so far.

Meanwhile, a day after many journalists, including CNN's Anderson Cooper, were attacked or intimidated by pro-government supporters in Egypt, reports of more journalists arrested or detained — by either police or the Egyptian military — in Cairo are flooding in.

Also read: How the Media Covered the Bloodiest Day in Egypt's Uprising

"There is a concerted campaign to intimidate international journalists in Cairo and interfere with their reporting," U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in a statement via Twitter. "We condemn such actions."

The campaign was enough to force CBS and NBC to pull its star news anchors — Katie Couric and Brian Williams — out of Cairo. The New York Times reports that Couric landed in New York shortly after 5:00 p.m. (ET) and anchored the "CBS Evening News" from Manhattan. Williams anchored "Nightly News" from Amman, Jordan.

It's not entirely clear why the journalists are being detained, but several who have been released say they were told it was for "their own protection," perhaps to protect them from pro-government mobs — like the one that attacked Cooper. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, there are dozens of reports of journalists being detained.

Below are some of those reports. Refresh for updates throughout the day.

>> CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan was reportedly marched back to her hotel at gunpoint when she and a crew were taking pictures of protests. [ABC News]

>> Time reports that Logan and her crew have been detained by Egyptian police outside Cairo's Israeli embassy. "This detention comes only a day after Logan herself reported on the intensified efforts of the Mubarak regime to clamp down on foreign journalists covering the ongoing protests." A spokesperson for CBS told Time that "for security reasons CBS will not be commenting on, or revealing in any way, CBS personnel activity, movement or location." [Time]

>> Foreign journalists were beaten with sticks and fists by pro-government mobs on the streets Cairo on Thursday and dozens were reported detained by security forces in what the U.S. called a concerted attempt to intimidate the press. [AP]

>> Two reporters working for The New York Times were released on Thursday after being detained overnight in Cairo.  [NYT]

>> The Washington Post's Cairo bureau chief Leila Fadel, photographer Linda Davidson and Sufian Taha, a translator, "were among two dozen journalists arrested this morning by the Egyptian Interior Ministry. We understand that they are safe but in custody and we have made urgent protests to Egyptian authorities in Cairo and Washington. We've advised the state department as well." (They were later released.) [WaPo]

>> "The Greek daily newspaper Kathimerini said its correspondent in Cairo was hospitalized with a stab wound to the leg after being attacked by pro-Mubarak demonstrators in central Tahrir Square. He has been released. A Greek newspaper photographer was also beaten." [AP]

>> The Greek journalist was stabbed "with a screwdriver"; the photographer was punched. [Yahoo]

>> NBC News' Ann Curry: "International journalists are now being forcibly prevented from reporting from Cairo." [@AnnCurry]

>> The Toronto Globe and Mail’s Sonia Verma and Patrick Martin "were detained shortly before 8 a.m. ET. The pair, along with their driver, were scooped up at a checkpoint by men in civilian clothes who seized their passports, Ms. Verma said. After learning they were journalists, one of the men commandeered their car." They were released a few hours later, and said it was part of an apparent campaign by the Egyptian military to round up journalists. [Globe and Mail]

>> Al Arabiya said its headquarters in Cairo came under sustained attack from pro-Mubarak demonstrators. “They destroyed some equipment outside the building, and they said they would come in and destroy everything,” said Nakhle El Hage, the channel’s news director. [NYT]

>> "Spotters stand outside many hotels, watching balconies with high-powered binoculars. When they see balconies with camera equipment or photographers, they use radios to call in the details. Egyptian police sources say that information from those spotters has been used to conduct several raids on journalists’ hotel rooms in recent days." [Al Jazeera]

>> "Two employees of Al Jazeera were dragged out of their car on the road from the airport to central Cairo and were detained." [NYT]

>> "The Qatar-based pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera said in an e-mail that three of its journalists were detained by security forces and another was reported missing." [AP]

>> ABC News international correspondent Christiane Amanpour said that on Wednesday her car was surrounded by men banging on the sides and windows, and a rock was thrown through the windshield, shattering glass on the occupants. They escaped without injury. [ABC]

>> An ABC producer and cameraman driving were carjacked at a checkpoint and driven to a compound where they were surrounded by men who threatened to behead them.  They were able to convince the men to release them without any harm. [ABC]

>> CBS newsman Mark Strassman said he and a camera operator were attacked as they attempted to get close to the rock-throwing and take pictures. The camera operator, who he would not name, was punched repeatedly and hit in the face with mace. [ABC]

>> Jon Bjorgvinsson, a correspondent for RUV, Iceland's national broadcaster, but on assignment for Swiss television in Cairo, was attacked on Tuesday as he and a crew were filming. The journalist and his team were apparently accused of being foreign spies, according to Icelandic news website Ice News. Bjorgvinsson was "knocked to the ground, his camera was broken, and his clothes were ripped." [CPJ]

>> BBC reported that its correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes' car was forced off the road in Cairo "by a group of angry men." He was detained by the men, who handed him off to secret police agents who handcuffed and blindfolded him and an unnamed colleague and took them to an interrogation room. They were released after three hours. [CPJ/BBC]

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