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Egypt journalists call for minister’s sacking over raid on union

JOURNALISTS demanded the sacking of Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar and began a sit-in at their union headquarters in Cairo yesterday after police arrested two members there.

After an early-morning emergency meeting, the union called for the “open-ended” sit-in to run until tomorrow’s general assembly meeting and World Press Freedom day on May 3.

They described the police entry into the building as a “raid by security forces whose blatant barbarism and aggression on the dignity of the press and journalists and their syndicate has surprised the journalistic community and the Egyptian people.”

Some called the raid heavy-handed, saying it had involved dozens of officers and resulted in a security guard being injured.

Police denied entering the building by force, insisting that only eight officers had taken part and stating that they had arrest warrants for the journalists on charges of organising protests to destabilise the country.

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