Reporting from Tahrir Square, Democracy Now!‘s Sharif Abdel Kouddous describes the media crackdown that journalists have faced in Egypt since protests erupted over a week ago. Egyptians are camping out in the rain in defiance of the military curfew, Kouddous says, and despite a military officer’s request that Egyptians leave Tahrir Square and go home, many remain.

Kouddous explains that it is getting harder and harder for the press to get into Tahrir Square with a camera. One journalist Kouddous spoke to, a still photographer who has lived in Cairo for fifteen years, explained that “The last twelve days have been the most exhilarating and the most terrifying twelve days" of her life.

—Kevin Gosztola