Egyptian authorities have attempted to halt live broadcasts from Cairo. According to the New York Times, shaky and grainy pictures have been sent using an undisclosed backup system.
The best television coverage of the protests came from Al Jazeera English, one of the most influential broadcast networks in the Arab world. Al Jazeera it is not carried by most cable and satellite companies in the United States, so viewers had to stream the network on the Internet.
Journalists have been greatly impeded by blockages of the Internet and of wireless phones in Egypt. Threats by security forces have further impeded their work.
Ben Wedeman, a veteran correspondent for CNN who is based in Cairo, told viewers Friday that security officers had smashed one of his crew’s cameras. “They’re pretty much anti-media right now”.
Except for CNN, it took time for the other networks in the United States to get correspondents to Egypt, but all major networks are now covering the crisis.
