The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
January 31, 2011

Egypt Attempts to Silence Al Jazeera; Cuts Off Internet & Cell Phones 
----------------------------------------------------------------------



The Hosni Mubarak government has also intensified its efforts to silence
critics of the regime. In addition to shutting down Internet and mobile
phone communications across the country, Egyptian authorities closed Al
Jazeera's Egyptian office and removed the news station from a main
satellite operator. Six Al Jazeera journalists were arrested earlier
today in Cairo and had their equipment seized.

Mustafa Souag, Al Jazeera's news director: "This is going to make it a
little bit more difficult for our journalists to work, of course. I
mean, the foreclosure of our office in Egypt is the latest in a series
of moves by the Egyptian authorities trying to silence Al Jazeera as a
way to prevent its citizens and the rest of the world from knowing
what's going on."



.