Press freedom activists and journalists condemned the arrest of satellite TV news station Al-Jazeera’s Cairo bureau chief Hussein Abdel Ghani on Wednesday, calling it an attack on journalists everywhere and a violation of freedom of expression,reports allAfrica.com.



“This constitutes an attack on journalists’ right to broadcast information in a transparent, unbiased way to the public,” said Samir Omar, a Cairo-based correspondent for the pan-Arab satellite television channel.



Abdel Ghani was reportedly detained earlier this week from his hotel in Dahab, 610 km south-east of Cairo, by plainclothes central security officers, from where he was reporting on the latest developments of Monday’s bombing that killed 18 people.



Although it is not the first time for a journalist to be arrested in Egypt, activists have endorsed the professionalism of Abdel Ghani’s Dahab reportage, describing it as “the most transparent, unbiased and up-to-date”, according to Ibrahim Nawar, director of the Cairo-based Arab Press Freedom Watch. “Not only is this an attack on journalists’ right to broadcast clear, unbiased information,” said Nawar. “It’s also an attack on the public’s right to know the truth about the Dahab attacks.”