Journalists Face Danger in Egypt

ABC reports:

A group of angry Egyptian men carjacked an ABC News crew and threatened to behead them today in the latest and most menacing attack on foreign reporters trying to cover the anti-government uprising.

While ABC News and other press agencies had been taking precautions to avoid volatile situations, the road to the airport had been a secure route until today. One of their two vehicles was carrying cameras and transmission equipment strapped to the roof, indicating they were foreign journalists.

Hartman says it was only through the appeal of Abi-hanna, who is Lebanese and a veteran ABC cameraman, that they were saved from being killed or severely beaten.

"We thought we were goners," Hartman said later. "We absolutely thought we were doomed."

Word of their harrowing ordeal came in a Twitter message from Hartman that stated, "Just escaped after being carjacked at a checkpoint and driven to a compound where men surrounded the car and threatened to behead us."

"The men released us only after our camera man appealed to the generous spirit of the Egyptian people, hugging and kissing an elder," he added in a subsequent tweet.

Time reports:

Sources have told TIME Magazine that Lara Logan, chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News, has been detained along with her crew by Egyptian police outside Cairo's Israeli embassy.

This detention comes only a day after Logan herself reported on the intensified efforts of the Mubarak regime to clamp down on foreign journalists covering the ongoing protests.

"The army just shifted dramatically to a much more aggressive posture, and they have absolutely prevented us from filming anywhere," Logan said Wednesday. She has been filing reports from the country since Jan. 31. She went on to note that even when Logan and crew left their hotel without cameras, they were followed relentlessly by officials.