When the army ousted Morsi on 3 July, Reporters Without Borders urged the new interim government to respect its initial route map by quickly moving to “a new constitution that fully respects human rights, including freedom of information, and to free and democratic presidential and parliamentary elections with respect for pluralism.”

Since 3 July, a total of five journalists have been killed, 80 journalists have been arbitrarily detained (with seven still held) and at least 40 news providers have been physically attacked by the police or by pro-Morsi or pro-army demonstrators.

These violations of freedom of information have taken place in a highly polarized political environment that has made the situation extremely difficult and dangerous for journalists.

Reporters Without Borders said it condemns the climate of violence and political persecution in which both local and foreign journalists now have to operate in Egypt.

“It is unacceptable that journalists are continually being targeted,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Reporters must be able to work without their lives being put in danger, regardless of the political fault lines. We deplore the passivity of the new Egyptian authorities and we urge them to react quickly by taking concrete measures to guarantee journalists’ safety and respect for freedom of information.”

Reporters Without Borders points out that media coverage of the events taking place in Egypt is essential for understanding the complexity of the situation on the ground.

Meanwhile, Egyptian security forces continue to detain and harass journalists working for news outlets critical of the military-led government, particularly Al-Jazeera and its affiliates, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists(CPJ) . Journalists also still face physical threats from protesters, as tensions persist between the government and supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

The Ministry of Investment on Thursday August 29, 2013 said it would ban Al-Jazeera Mubashir, the network’s Egyptian affiliate, because it lacked the required legal permits, according to news reports. The statement accused the channel of “spreading lies and rumors damaging to Egyptian national security and unity.” Today, the Ministry of Interior issued a statement saying it had confiscated two broadcasting cars and equipment from Al-Jazeera Mubashir.

On Tuesday August 27, Egyptian security forces detained without charge four staff of Al-Jazeera English, including correspondent Wayne Hay, cameraman Adil Bradlow, and producers Russ Finn and Baher Mohammed, the station reported. Al-Jazeera Arabic correspondent Abdullah al-Shami and Al-Jazeera Mubashir cameraman Mohamed Bader had been arrested earlier this month while covering protests and held under charges of “threatening national security” and “possessing weapons,” respectively.

Six of the 10 journalists in custody in Egypt are from Al-Jazeera and its affiliates, according to CPJ research.

“I deplore the deaths of Ahmed Abdel Gawad, Mosab Al-Shami and Tamer Abdel Raouf,” said the Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, calling on Egyptian authorities “to do everything possible to ensure the security of media workers.”

Ms. Bokova expressed her distress and concern over the violence directed against the media in Egypt, where five media professionals have been killed while carrying out their duties in the span of a few days.

According to Reporters Without Borders, Mr. Gawad, a reporter for the Egyptian daily Al-Akhbar, and Mr. Al-Shami, a photojournalist for Rassd News Network, were killed on 14 August while covering demonstrations in the capital, Cairo. Both died from gunshot injuries.

Mr. Raouf was the regional director of Egypt’s Al-Ahram newspaper. He was shot dead at a vehicle checkpoint in Damanhur, in the Beheira Governorate in northern Egypt, on 19 August. Another journalist in the car, Hamed Al-Barbari, was injured.

Ms. Bokova also condemned yesterday the murder of Pakistani journalist Haji Abdul Razzak and Guatemalan journalist Carlos Alberto Orellana Chávez.

Mr. Razzak, 35, was a reporter for the Urdu-language newspaper Daily Tawar. His mutilated body was found in the city of Karachi last Wednesday. He had been reported missing since 24 March.

A broadcast journalist in Guatemala, Mr. Orellana Chávez hosted a news programme on Optimo 23 cable television after having directed Radio Victoria for over 25 years. According to Reporters Without Borders, he was shot down as he was driving to work some 50 kilometres from Mazatenango, the provincial capital of Suchitepequez, in the south of the country.

Ms. Bokova called on Pakistani and Guatemalan authorities “to do all in their power” to investigate the killings and shed light on these heinous crimes.

Mubarak was taken from Cairo’s Tora prison by medical helicopter on Thursday, following a court ruling which ordered his release. A medical helicopter then carried Mubarak to the Maadi Medical Hospital afternoon, according to local media.

Interim Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi has ordered Mubarak be placed under house arrest, according to AFP, with his travel ban remaining in effect.

Although Mubarak is released from prison he still faces charges of being involved in the killing of peaceful protesters in the 2011 uprising.

Mubarak was convicted last year of corruption and involvement in the murder of protesters during an uprising where Egyptians took to Tahrir Square for 18 days to demand his ouster.

Meanwhile, supporters of Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Mursi called on the Egyptian people to protest against the army Friday.

Egypt has witnessed unprecedented violent clashes since security forces dispersed two major pro-Morsi sit-ins in the country a week ago.

Until now, almost 1,000 people have been killed across the country, according to Al Jazeera.

Islamist groups in Egypt have been accusing Mursi’s ouster in early July as a “military coup”.

In July this year, Mohamed Morsi, the first democratically elected president, was deposed by the armed forces after only one year in office.

Security forces moved in on two Cairo protest camps set up by supporters of Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi leaving scores dead on Wednesday.

The latest updates on the death toll vary widely

A death tally by AFP says 124 were killed at the Rabaa Al-Adawiya sit-in alone while Aljazeera’s correspondent counted 94 bodies in Rabaa al-Adawiya’s makeshift hospital. The Health Ministry has put the figure at 15 people killed.

However, the Muslim Brotherhood said the death toll was as high as 2,200, with about 10,000 injured.

Meanwhile, the security crackdown has sparked global outrage.

The EU has issued a statement urging all sides to exercise maximum restraint.

“Confrontation and violence are not the way forward,” said Peter Stano, spokesman for EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton. “Reports about deaths and injuries in this respect are extremely worrying.”

Iran also condemned what it called a “massacre” as police moved on Wednesday to clear protests in Cairo by supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, Fars news agency reported.

Qatar, a main backer of the pro-Morsi Muslim Brotherhood, issued a similar message.

“Qatar strongly denounces the means by which peaceful protesters in Rabaa al-Adawiya camp and Al-Nahda square have been dealt with and which led to the killing of several unarmed innocent people among them,” a foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement published on the official QNA agency.

There was no immediate reaction from the United States to Wednesday’s bloodshed.

The Freedom and Justice Party, the religious group’s political arm, demanded “an uprising by the great people of Egypt against those trying to steal their revolution with tanks”.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which has led demonstrations against the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi last Wednesday, said its supporters were “massacred” when police and troops fired on them during morning prayers outside in front of the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo.

Dr. Ahmed Aref, Muslim Brotherhood media spokesman, said the attack against protesters outside the Republican Guard compound can only be described as mindless total genocide, while Gihad Al-Haddad, Muslim Brotherhood media spokesman, placed the responsibility for the heinous attack fully on the army.

Over 1000 have been injured and more than 53 have been reported killed, according to the Muslim Brotherhood official website.

However, the Egyptian health ministry said at least 42 people had been killed and more than 300 injured in the incident early on Monday morning

The military blamed “terrorists groups”  and said they attempted to storm the Republican Guard headquarters.

Mursi is reportedly detained there after his arrest Wednesday.

The Monday morning violence further deepened a crisis in the country.

In a related development, Egypt’s prosecution ordered the closure of the Cairo headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party after police found weapons inside it on Monday, a security official said, AFP reported.

However, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) affirmed that it had cleared its headquarters of all employees since June 27, 2013 in order to avoid bloodshed, after calls were made to burn those headquarters, which already resulted in the torching of many FJP headquarters since that date.

The FJP announced it bears no responsibility for any activity in these headquarters since June 27, and indeed places the full responsibility on security apparatus entrusted with the protection of the headquarters and its contents.

“The ‘National Alliance in Support of Electoral Legitimacy’ (NASEL) appealed to the masses of the Egyptian people to mobilize in peaceful mass marches in all liberty squares and streets of Egypt, to be started from all mosques, after Friday prayers, to reject the heinous coup against popular will,” the alliance said in a statement.

NASEL said that it feels rising public anger and the imminent danger threatening the nation as a result of the unprecedented military coup d’état against legitimacy derived from the will of the people and the January 25 Revolution.

Moreover, NASEL stressed “categorical rejection of the terror and violence dealt by the new police state authorities, which began from the first moment the coup was announced with all forms of repression, restriction of freedoms, closure of satellite TV channels – especially Islamist ones, restricting the freedom of the media, the arrest of politicians, and framing innocent people,” it added.

The military  shut down four Islamist TV stations, banned the Muslim Brotherhood’s newspaper and raided the office of Al-Jazeera in Egypt, bringing an outcry Thursday from rights groups.

Rights groups said the moves appeared to be an attempt to intimidate pro-Mursi media and shut off their viewpoints, according to AP.

The military’s move came hours after the announcement of the military chief that Mursi had been removed.

In a statement, the Brotherhood said the shutdowns were a return to the “repressive” policies of Egypt’s “dark … ages.”

Mursi, his aides, and Muslim Brotherhood officials have been placed under house arrest after Mursi was ousted from power in Egypt, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, Adly Mansour, the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, with which Morsi had repeated confrontations, was sworn in as interim president on Thursday.

At least 16 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in clashes across Egypt since Mursi’s overthrow.

“President Mursi’s escalated rhetoric against the critical press is deeply troubling,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa coordinator. “The president is not meeting his responsibility to set a tone of tolerance and respect for viewpoints that differ from his own and those of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

An escalation in anti-press rhetoric by the president followed a week of violent protests outside the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in Cairo that reached a high point on Friday. In a speech Sunday, Mursi accused owners of private news outlets of criticizing and insulting him, and said the media had incited violence by covering only the attacks on protesters–and not those on Muslim Brotherhood members, news reports said.

Echoing those remarks, the Muslim Brotherhood used social networking sites to call for a siege on Sunday of the Media Production City in Cairo. A Facebook group, called “We are the Muslim Brotherhood youth, learn about us,” encouraged protesters to besiege the studios of five private satellite channels–Al-Hayat, ONTV, Al-Nahar, Al-Qahira wal Nas, and CBC–located inside the Media Production City. The outlets are known for criticizing the Muslim Brotherhood group.

On Thursday, the National Security Committee–a part of the Egyptian upper house of parliament–accused the private media of biased coverage and said that the government should censor private outlets, according to news reports. An official in the meeting, Essam al-Erian, a Muslim Brotherhood majority leader, also threatened an Al-Watan correspondent, saying he had “surprises for them … that would make everyone in the media know their limits,” the paper reported.

On Sunday, members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood surrounded the Media Production City, closing the gates and refusing entrance to journalists and guests. Protesters assaulted journalists to prevent them from filming, and chanted threatening slogans to journalists inside the city, saying they would be slaughtered for their insults to Mursi, according to news reports.

Hussein Abdel Ghany, a prominent news host and a former correspondent of Al-Jazeera in Egypt, told CPJ that he was attacked by 10 individuals outside the city and the windshield of his car broken. He said protesters attempted to take him out of his car and beat him, but that his driver prevented the attack.

Reham al-Sahli, a host of the talk show “90 Minutes” was attacked and her car damaged in the protests, according to news reports. Diaa Rashwan, head of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, was prevented from entering Media Production City, reports said.

A journalist at Al-Ahram Weekly, Khaled Dawoud, told CPJ he had received death threats as a result of his writings and his role as a media spokesman for the National Salvation Front, an opposition organization that includes liberal and leftist parties. Muslim Brotherhood supporters claim that the organization provides a “political cover” for the violent protests against them.

“Authorities are prosecuting critics while ignoring numerous attacks against journalists last week alone,” said Mansour. “The attacks that took place at the gates of Media Production City demand immediate judicial intervention.”

Yesterday, Egypt Prosecutor General Talaat Abdullah ordered the arrests of five activists and journalists after Muslim Brotherhood members accused them of inciting violence following Mursi’s speech, according to news reports. The prosecutor also imposed a travel ban on them. The list includes Alaa Abdel Fattah, a prominent blogger who was accused and fined last year for “insulting the military,” according to news reports. Abdel Fattah vowed on his Facebook account to appear in front of the prosecutor tomorrow to challenge the “fabricated charges” against him, while others, including columnist and activist Hazim Abdel Azim, decided to ignore what they considered an “illegitimate” arrest warrant, according to news reports.

Abdullah was appointed by Mursi last November in a move that resulted in series of protests from the opposition and strikes within the judiciary. He has referred dozens of journalists and media professionals in the past few months for investigation by public prosecutors because of accusations of criminal defamation of President Morsi.

The early results are based on reports from returning officials from the majority of stations after two rounds of voting that ended with a final ballot on Saturday. Official results, however, are not expected until Monday.

Exit polls from the opposition National Salvation Front (NSF) also showed the constitution passing, an official said. However, the opposition alleged in a statement that ballot fraud had taken place since the polls opened.

The December 15 first round returned 57 percent in favor of the constitution, according to unofficial data.

Late on Saturday, Mursi announced the names of 90 new members he had appointed to the upper house of parliament, state media reported, and according to the Muslim Brotherhood’s website the list was mainly liberals and other non-Islamists.

“President Mursi issues a Decree to approve 90 nominees for membership of Shura Council – the upper chamber of Egyptian Parliament – including 12 Coptic Christians, and a total of 75% non-Islamists,” according to the Brotherhood’s website.

Two-thirds of the 270-member upper house was elected in a vote early this year, with one third appointed by the president.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s vice-president announced his resignation even as voters were still going to the polls on Saturday, state TV reported.

Mursi’s vice president, Mahmud Mekki, whose post is not mentioned in the new charter, announced Saturday in a press statement that he was resigning.

“Political work does not suit my professional character,” he said in a statement, referring to his past as a respected judge.

The early result of the poll is based on unofficial tallies that emerged on Sunday. Official results are not due to be released until the second round on December 22.

The Muslim Brotherhood said the group’s tallies showed that 56.5 per cent of voters had supported the constitution, while 43 per cent had voted ‘no’, according to results posted on their website ikhwanweb.com.

“The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP)’s central operations room followed the course of the vote on Egypt’s new Constitution Saturday. Our monitors noted a large turnout of voters. They further noted that the operation flowed smoothly, in a systematic manner, without incident, in the vast majority of polling stations in all governorates,” the Muslim Brotherhood said in a statement.

The vote this time is on a 63-page document that would be Egypt’s post-revolution constitution, and which has been the subject of a growing rift between Islamist forces and their opponents, who oppose the draft for not representing all Egyptians.

Menawhile, Egypt’s opposition cried fraud in Saturday’s first round the referendum on a new constitution, accusing President Mohamed Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood of rigging votes to adopt the Islamist-backed text, AFP reported.

The main opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front, had announced on Saturday night after polls closed that almost two thirds of voters had rejected the constitution drafted by an Islamist-dominated council, AP reported..

If the constitution is approved, Mursi hopes it will end a tumultuous transition almost two years after a popular uprising that pusted president Hosni Mubarak.

Parliamentary elections will be held by early next year and be overseen by an independent commission, government spokesman Samih al-Maitah said. The Parliament was elected almost two years ago.

Under the constitution, the Cabinet must resign within a week of the parliament’s dissolution.

The “Friday to Rescue the Nation” demonstration which the Brotherhood’s Islamic Action Front political arm said would have more than 50,000 people calling for political and economic reforms. The Brotherhood and a coalition of tribal and other groups have been pressing the monarch to speed up what they consider to be the slow pace of political reform.

Organizers of the pro-monarchy Youth Coalition of Loyalty and Allegiance canceled their planned demonstration in support of the king, saying they wanted to avoid tensions.

Numerous demonstrations have taken place in Jordan since January 2011 to call for political and economic reforms and demand an end to corruption.

89 members of Jordan’s 120-seat Parliament signed a petition for the dismissal of Prime Minister Fayez Tarawneh Sept. 2 over increasing fuel prices and “because of recent appointments in top posts based on nepotism,” the official Petra news agency reported.

The Brotherhood says it would boycott the polls as it did in 2010 to protest against the lack of solid reforms, while calling for a parliamentary system where the prime minister is elected, rather than named by the king.

In an exclusive interview with AFP news agency last month, the king said a decision by the Islamists to boycott the vote was “a tremendous miscalculation.”