Journalists and bloggers who covered the economic riots that took place in Mahalla, Egypt have been arrested:

The journalists arrested today were apparently in Mahalla to cover a visit by a group of professors and activists who came to express solidarity with the residents of the Nile Delta city.

Among those arrested were Reuters photographer Nasser Nouri and independent Egyptian weekly paper El-Fagr’s Ahmed Hamad, as well as journalists for Dream TV and Orbit TV, said the security official.

Mr Buck, the American [freelance] journalist, said the state prosecutor had ordered his release this morning along with his translator Mohammed Saleh Ahmed.

But the two were re-arrested as soon as they stepped out of the prosecutor’s office in Mahalla. Although Buck was later told he was again free to go, he declined to leave without Mr Ahmed, who remained in custody.

Three bloggers have also been arrested for writing about the protest riots on their blogs.

Our Sam wrote about what was going on here just a couple of days after the rioting but before the bloggers were arrested. 3arabawy posted yesterday an update of exactly what is going on, including a timeline of who was arrested and the hunger strike that James Buck started in prison.

The three bloggers arrested are Esraa Abdel Fattah Ahmed –the girl who started the Day of Anger Facebook group that was very instrumental in spreading the word about the strike over rising bread and food prices — Mahamed El Sharkawi and Kareem El Beheiri – in connection with protests in the Cairo region on 6 April. They are charged with “forming a group of more than five people liable to undermine public security,” “ransacking public buildings,” “insulting police officials” and “trying to enter banks,” and are to be held for at least two weeks “for questioning.”

Global Voices has an article up about the arrested bloggers here.

This is not ok! Governments cannot go around arresting people for reporting what is occurring in their country. Governments cannot be allowed to go around doing this. Good Neighbors is joining Reporters Sans Frontiers in their call for the bloggers and all journalists to be released! I’m trying to find information about where exactly we can write, call, and scream for their release (if anyone has specific information about addresses and phone numbers, please share and I’ll post it here). Does anyone know how we can go about setting up an online petition calling for their release?