The Hosni Mubarak government has also intensified its efforts to silence critics of the regime. In addition to shutting down Internet and mobile phone communications across the country, Egyptian authorities closed Al Jazeera’s Egyptian office and removed the news station from a main satellite operator. Six Al Jazeera journalists were arrested earlier today in Cairo and had their equipment seized.

Mustafa Souag, Al Jazeera’s news director: “This is going to make it a little bit more difficult for our journalists to work, of course. I mean, the foreclosure of our office in Egypt is the latest in a series of moves by the Egyptian authorities trying to silence Al Jazeera as a way to prevent its citizens and the rest of the world from knowing what’s going on.”