Tamer Abdel Raouf, an Egyptian journalist, bureau chief, and regional director of Egypt's
Al-Ahram
''Al-Ahram'' (; ), founded on 5 August 1876, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second-oldest after '' Al-Waqa'i' al-Misriyya'' (''The Egyptian Events'', founded 1828). It is majority owned by the Egyptian governm ...
newspaper, was shot dead at a military checkpoint in
Damanhur
Damanhur ( ', ) is a city in Lower Egypt, and the capital of the Beheira Governorate. It is located northwest of Cairo, and E.S.E. of Alexandria, in the middle of the western Nile Delta.
Damanhur is a historic city, whose history can be dated ...
Mohamed Morsi
Mohamed Mohamed Morsi Eissa Al-AyyatThe spellings of his first and last names vary. survey of 14 news organizations plus Wikipedia in July 20122012-13 Egyptian protests and his removal from office by the military on July 3, 2013. After the military coup, many Egyptian news reporters and journalists were targeted by military and police. Raouf was one of the journalists killed.
Personal life
Abdel Raouf is originally from the village of Bani Gharyan,
Quesna
Quesna ( ) is a city in Monufia Governorate, Egypt. It has an area of 49009 feddans (210 square kilometers).
The older name of the city
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around t ...
,
Menoufia
Monufia ( ' ) is one of the governorates of Egypt. Monufia’s name was derived from the hieroglyphic word “Nafr”, which means “The Good Land”. It is located in the northern part of the country in the Nile Delta, to the south of Gharbia ...
. Raouf was living in the town of
Kafr El Dawwar
Kafr El Dawwar ( ) is a major industrial city and municipality on the Nile Delta in the Beheira Governorate of northern Egypt. Located approximately 30 km from Alexandria, the municipality has a population of about 265,300 inhabitants a ...
, Beheira Northern Governorate at the time.
Career
Tamer Abdel Raouf was the bureau chief and regional director for the ''Al-Ahram'' daily newspaper in Egypt. He had just finished meeting with the new Egyptian governor, Mostafa Hadhound, and was killed on his way home after.
Death
Tamer Abdel Raouf was driving back just days after the
August 2013 Rabaa massacre
On 14 August 2013, the Egyptian police (and to a lesser extent the armed forces), under the command of then-Defense Minister Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, used lethal force to “disperse” two camps of protesters in Cairo: one at al-Nahda Square and ...
from a meeting with Egypt's new governor, Mostafa Hadhound, on the night of Monday, August 19, 2013, when he was killed on his way home. The meeting had lasted to before Egypt's curfew of 7 p.m. After taking three other journalists home from the meeting, Raouf and Hamed Al-Barbari, a journalist from the daily Al-Gomhuria Egyptian newspaper, were on their way to their homes in Kafr El Dawwar. On their way there, they approached a military vehicle checkpoint on an agricultural road in Damanhur, Beheira. Barburi states that as they approached they were waved on by soldiers to turn around and leave the checkpoint, and as they turned around to leave, soldiers fired on the vehicle, shooting Raouf in the head and injuring Barbari. The vehicle then came to a stop after hitting a light post. Barburi also stated that they arrived at the checkpoint shortly after 6 p.m., before the 7 p.m. curfew.
However, the military states that the vehicle approached the checkpoint at a very high speed. Warnings were yelled and warning shots were fired, and Raouf's vehicle still sped towards them, so they fired on the vehicle. It was also stated that as Raouf attempted to turn around and leave the checkpoint, they fired because the soldiers believed they were trying to escape. Contrary to Barburi's statement, the military stated that Raouf's vehicle approached the checkpoint after the 7 p.m. curfew, not at 6 p.m. They also stated that shots were fired at the checkpoint by Raouf's vehicle. Barburi was detained for four days to investigate this after a handgun was found in the vehicle by police.
Irina Bokova
Irina Georgieva Bokova (; born 12 July 1952) is a Bulgarian politician and a former Director-General of UNESCO (2009–2017). During her political and diplomatic career in Bulgaria, she served, among others, two terms as a member of the Nation ...
, director-general of
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
said deploring his death and calling for a thorough investigation it. She also stated that "This is an issue of freedom of expression and information. I call on the Egyptian authorities to do everything possible to ensure the security of media workers.
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...
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."
The
National Press Club
A press club is an organization for journalists and others who are professionally engaged in the production and dissemination of news. A press club whose membership is defined by the press of a given country may be known as a National Press Club ...
called out the Egyptian government directly, said, "The Egyptian government appears to be targeting both domestic and foreign journalists for no reason other than they are reporting the news. There is a desperate need for the Egyptian people to know what's happening as unrest grips the country. The regime's open and violent crackdown suggests they want to keep their citizens in the dark." NPC also called for investigations to be done on all news reporters or journalists killed or harmed, and to take action against those responsible.
The DOHA Centre For Media Freedom (DCMF) also reacted, calling for Egyptian authorities to respect news reporters and journalists as they do their job, as it is important for them to get out the news without being in danger or risking their lives. They also called for the release of all detained journalists.