Foreign and Egyptian journalists have been attacked during violent clashes in Cairo in what the Committee to Protect Journalists said was a government attempt at "blanket censorship" and intimidation.
"The Egyptian government is employing a strategy of eliminating witnesses to their actions," Mohamed Abdel Dayem, Middle East and North Africa coordinator of the New York based watchdog, said in a statement.
Reuters television said one of its crews was beaten up today close to Tahrir Square while filming a piece about shops and banks being forced to shut during the clashes.
A Greek reporter was stabbed in the leg by Mubarak supporters and a photojournalist with him was beaten to the head, a Reuters witness said.
"The government has resorted to blanket censorship, intimidation, and today a series of deliberate attacks on journalists carried out by pro-government mobs," Mr Abdel Dayem said in the statement.
He listed several reported assaults on or against Egyptian, Arabic and international media during violence sparked when supporters of President Hosni Mubarak charged at anti-government protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
The army set up a buffer zone today between the two sides.
The CPJ said the violence included what it said were plainclothes police attacking the offices of a Cairo newspaper and attacks and harassment of journalists from US and European networks.
The Reuters crew of two people was in Talaat Harb street, which leads to the central square, when they were hit, shoved, threatened and sworn at this morning. Their camera, microphone and tripod were taken and repeatedly smashed. The crew was not injured. It was not immediately clear who the assailants were.
Reuters